U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to order the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, Iran's most powerful military commander, has raised the specter, albeit still distant, of all-out war between the United States and the Islamic Republic. There is only one winner in this situation: China.
With Trump's latest blunder, history may not be repeating itself, but it is certainly rhyming. When George W. Bush began his presidency in January 2001, his neoconservative advisers identified China as the biggest long-term threat to the U.S. So his administration labeled China a "strategic competitor" and set to work on containing America's Asian rival.
In April 2001 — the same month a U.S. Navy spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet while on a routine surveillance mission over the South China Sea — the U.S. announced the sale of a weapons package to Taiwan over Chinese protests. Bilateral relations plunged to their lowest point since the normalization of diplomatic ties in 1979.