With Donald Trump elected as the next US president, a top analyst has made some projections for the key national security figures – all China hawks – set to shape his administration’s approach to world affairs.

Ian Bremmer, president and founder of the New York-based Eurasia Group, said on Wednesday that US Senator Bill Hagerty, a Republican from Tennessee, has the “inside track” to become secretary of state.

As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Hagerty has maintained a hardline approach on China, targeting everything from China’s cloud service providers and biotech companies to Chinese batteries being used at US military bases.

Bremmer said Richard Grenell, former acting director of the National Intelligence Council, also has a chance at the post. Grenell, also a former ambassador to Germany whom Trump once referred to as “my envoy”, was known for his confrontational diplomacy that tested Washington’s relationship with Berlin.

Grenell has been outspoken about Chinese influence in the US, calling China a “crisis” for American “business, academia and the public”. When Vice-President Kamala Harris chose Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate, Grenell remarked that “Communist China is very happy”. Grenell also currently serves as a senior adviser to the Protecting America Initiative, an advocacy group focused on stopping “the threat of Communist China at the state level”.