Did they want to see Russia expelled from the Middle East? A war between the US and Russia? Perhaps either/or.
And I will say that calling China to account for its restrictive trade practices MAY be one of the most important things Trump has done in his first term.
People call this a trade war. If so, it amounts to a counter-offensive. The markets were not open, so the opening assaults originated in China long ago.
China WANTED to keep dumping goods on America, having an elite and the government pocket most of the money, and use that money to continue their quest to become a superpower. I don’t think this is working very well now.
And I have said for years that Bill Clinton’s real crime was most likely facilitating both the leaks of highly classified military information, and the sale of dual use technology to the Chinese, most likely in exchange for compensation in multiple forms. Kenneth Starr may have been actually intended to cover up the real crimes, just as Hillary used Russia to distract from her Chinese connections.
China is not a superpower yet, and it remains a wildly unpopular government. They do not have “The Way”. They are an old school fascistic government, of the sort China has unfortunately seen off and on for several millenia. It is ruled by and for the elites, who try and use propaganda, some carrots, and some well hidden whips, to keep the populace in line enough to do the work they can use, as the “rentiers” and Capitalists they are, to profit their own families and further their ambitions for power. China has kings and it has a tyrant. Nothing is new, except, perhaps, the rationalization. But even there, “Historical Necessity” probably still plays the role of The Will of Heaven.
Nothing has changed. Nothing, except that the death tolls were much higher than they have ever been.