Donald Trump has signaled a tough new stance on China with aggressive appointments to top foreign policy positions as the president-elect rushes to fill his key Cabinet roles, according to experts in Washington.

Trump on Tuesday named Mike Waltz, a Florida congressman and former Green Beret who has called China an “existential” threat, as his security adviser. He is expected to appoint Senator Marco Rubio, another leading China hawk, as his secretary of state.

The president-elect as ambassador to the UN, Representative Elise Stefanik, was also highly critical of Beijing.

Foreign policy experts who say the U.S. should take a tougher stance on China than that of Democratic President Joe Biden welcomed the staff moves.

“This is like Christmas morning for the China hawks,” said Eric Sayers, director of the Beacon Global Strategies consultancy.

Sayers said Trump’s appointees understood not only the U.S. need for robust defense, but also the importance of competing with China in other areas, including the economy, technology and human rights.

Mike Gallagher, a former Republican member of Congress and chairman of the House China Committee, said the appointments of Waltz and Rubio should send a message to Beijing that “the era of accommodation is over.”

“Waltz and Rubio clearly see the threat from the Chinese Communist Party, understand that we are in the early stages of a new cold war and (understand) that to win it we must restore deterrence and prioritize hard power ” said Gallagher. leads the defense activities of technology group Palantir and is a fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank.

Waltz has urged the US to increase its deterrence against China. “We need to shift to the Pacific,” Waltz told the Financial Times in September, saying the situation was “dire” as China pursued its “fastest military buildup since the 1930s.”

Trump said Tuesday that Waltz would be a champion of “peace through strength,” borrowing a phrase used by former President Ronald Reagan.

Dennis Wilder, a former CIA China expert, said Trump and his nascent team believed the Biden administration had failed to make clear to Beijing that “US primacy in the Indo-Pacific was unshakable and that war with China can only be avoided by a strong deterrent and resolution”.

Waltz told the FT in September that Trump would avoid a conflict over Taiwan by showing American strength.

“He really believes that we can exert influence, we can use our economic strength, that we can use diplomacy in a way that is backed by a robust military presence that can prevent these wars,” Waltz said.

Defense experts have been scrutinizing Trump’s appointments to get a sense of his thinking on Taiwan, the most sensitive issue in US-China relations. Waltz said he expected Trump to continue the U.S. policy of “strategic ambiguity,” with the U.S. not making clear whether it would defend the island.

“I don’t think he wants Xi to know,” Waltz said, referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Waltz will have an ideological ally at the State Department in Rubio, experts say. The Florida senator was one of the early advocates in Congress of a tougher approach to China, on everything from the persecution of Uyghurs in Xinjiang and the crackdown on democracy activists in Hong Kong to the pressure on Taiwan. In 2020, China placed Rubio on a list of sanctioned Americans over his “egregious” record in Hong Kong.

Alexander Gray, who served as National Security Council chief of staff in the first Trump administration, said the selections showed Trump “wanted to surround himself with strategic thinkers who understand the challenge posed by the People’s Republic of China.”

But Gray said Waltz would be an “honest mediator,” mediating debates in the interagency process, rather than trying to impose his own views instead of the president’s.

Rush Doshi, a China expert at the Council on Foreign Relations and Georgetown University, said Trump pursued two China policies during his first term: one was a “competitive” policy pushed by his staff and the other was his own ” transactional” policies that undermined competitive moves on technology, trade and human rights to secure deals with China.

In that sense, foreign policy experts are keeping a close eye on what role Trump’s ally Elon Musk will play — and whether the billionaire will try to temper Trump on China over his ties to the country where he has a Tesla factory has.

“Picks like Rubio, Waltz and Stefanik suggest that there will be a group that will take the tough approach instead of the transactional approach. That could mean greater continuity with the Biden team on allies, human rights, technology and Taiwan,” Doshi said.

“But as we saw last time, staff only goes so far. Trump is in charge and does not hesitate to eliminate those who disagree with him.”