Waltz as US national security adviser would fit Trump’s tough line on China: analysts

Waltz has been an ardent supporter of Trump and a vocal critic of President Joe Biden and is known for being sceptical of US aid for Ukraine.

On China, he is viewed as among the most hawkish members of Congress. He is a member of the House Republicans’ China Task Force which looks at how Washington should compete with Beijing.

In 2021, he called for the US to boycott the Winter Olympics hosted by Beijing, introducing the resolution by saying the Chinese Community Party (CCP) had “carried out a number of heinous acts in the last year alone that should disqualify them from hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics”.

“The world cannot legitimise the CCP’s acts of genocide in Xinjiang, destruction of the democratic rights of Hong Kong and dangerous suppression of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan that cost lives, by sending delegations to [the Games in] Beijing,” he said.

According to the Financial Times, he has said China is an “existential threat” to US interests, and that Washington needs to “make significant investments in our own readiness”.