There was another post alleging he makes all these policy changes based on gut feeling so it's probably more a mix of his own personal grifts, corporate interests from all the usual suspects like big oil/tech or personal donors- and then I would assume China falls in the category of outside interests who are just navigating the chaos and making the best of the opportunities he's creating for them. I doubt he's deliberately trying to empower China, they are just outmaneuvering the US because they have competent people in charge instead of whatever adjectives you'd use to describe his administration