A “Hard Break” with China is Far-Right Accelerationism: Part I

The idea of decoupling from China forsakes democracy. For the far right, that’s the point

You might have seen that Trump announced “a four-year plan to phase out all Chinese imports of essential goods.” It’s part of a terrifyingly coherent—and I mean terrifying—set of oligarchic nationalism policies. But his proposals aren’t new.

Since around 2020, foreign-policy hawks and the MAGA right have coalesced around the idea of isolating America’s economy from China. Sometimes it’s discussed as decoupling. Other times, it’s dubbed a “hard break” from China. In polite company, it’s simply “de-risking” taken to its logical conclusion.

But what it entails is nothing short of far-right accelerationism. It’s one of many means by which to hasten the crashing of the US system, thereby consolidating political power against any semblance of equality and ushering in a “clash of civilizations” at home as abroad.

Even if Trump is kept out of the presidency, the China portion of MAGA accelerationist thinking is dangerously close to being mainstream.

In this first post, I want to break down why the decoupling/hard break argument does not work, doesn’t serve its own purposes, and misunderstands capitalism. In Part II (to follow), I’ll then focus on why doing what the decouplers advocate on China policy involves actively taking up arms against democracy as we know it. Who benefits from that? The far right.

Let me explain.