President Donald Trump’s oldest son argued the US should be prepared to deal with any military challenge from China, yet remain open to talks with its rival.

Donald Trump Jr. made the remarks in a commentary Tuesday for Human Events, a conservative news website. The piece made the case for Elbridge Colby to be nominated to a Pentagon post. Colby, a hard-liner on China, is the president’s pick for undersecretary of defense for policy.

Trump Jr. said Colby believed “we must focus our military” on China “but at the same time, he supports my father in his openness to negotiation with Xi Jinping and avoiding poking the dragon in the eye unnecessarily.” Trump’s son added that “when you consider that the American people would benefit most from a balance of power with China that avoids war, it makes perfect sense.”

The remarks shed some light on how the Trump administration plans to deal with China. Trump Jr. doesn’t have an official position in government but plays a prominent role in his father’s political circle.

Vice President JD Vance posted Trump Jr.’s article on X, saying Colby “has consistently been correct about the big foreign policy debates of the last 20 years” and should win nomination. Those comments come as a handful of Republican senators oppose his selection, apparently over his view the US should be less involved in the Middle East.

When asked about Trump Jr.’s article at a regular press briefing in Beijing on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said the US should work with his country on sound relations.

Taiwan and the neighboring South China Sea are the biggest points of contention between the Chinese and American armed forces. Beijing has pledged to bring Taiwan under its control someday, by force if necessary, while the US has long been Taipei’s biggest military backer.

Trump has suggested Taipei should pay the US for protection and raise spending on its military. Those stances spurred Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te to pledge to boost defense expenditures.

Top US and Philippine military officials recently discussed ways to increase the “scope and capacity” of joint exercises. Manila and Beijing have been locked in an escalating dispute over the resource-rich South China Sea, with their vessels often clashing in disputed waters. The US and the Philippines signed a mutual defense treaty in 1951.

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