S T R AT E GI C E N V I RON M E N T However, the rise of China is increasingly meeting resistance. In June 2018, by imposing tariffs on imports from China, the USA started a trade conflict, the outcome of which is still unclear and which might turn out to be extremely costly for the USA and the global economy. Xi Jinping’s Chinese dream of the resurgence of the former world power is seen by a broad political spectrum in the USA as a nightmare for the liberal Western world, geared as it is toward market economics, democracy and human rights. US Vice President Pence articulated this in a strongly worded speech on China at the Hudson Institute in Washington on 4 October 2018. He accused China of using unfair and illegal measures to strengthen the Chinese economy and above all of striving for military power. He said that China was aiming to drive the USA out of the Western Pacific and thereby also seeking to prevent the USA from providing military support to its allies. He said that the Chinese leadership was also systematically suppressing the freedom of expression of its citizens and was attempting to exert massive pressure, even in the USA, in order to influence media reporting on China and the film industry’s image of China. 24 S I T UAT I O N R E PORT 2 0 1 9 | F I S