{"id":8063,"date":"2020-10-20T15:03:15","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T05:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/?p=8063"},"modified":"2024-01-21T09:38:27","modified_gmt":"2024-01-20T23:38:27","slug":"trump-took-a-sledgehammer-to-us-china-relations-this-wont-be-an-easy-fix-even-if-biden-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/trump-took-a-sledgehammer-to-us-china-relations-this-wont-be-an-easy-fix-even-if-biden-wins\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump took a sledgehammer to US-China relations. This won\u2019t be an easy fix, even if Biden wins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HUI FENG<\/a> | <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Few would have thought a US-China relationship marked by relative stability for half a century would be upended in just four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But US President Donald Trump\u2019s privileged tour<\/a> of the Forbidden City in November 2017 by Chinese President Xi Jinping now looks like it happened in a bygone era, given the turbulence in the bilateral relationship since then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shift in the US\u2019s China policy is no doubt one of the major legacies of the Trump administration\u2019s foreign policy, alongside a renewed peace process<\/a> in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Trump\u2019s daughter Ivanka said at the Republican National Convention<\/a> that \u201cWashington has not changed Donald Trump, Donald Trump has changed Washington\u201d. This would certainly include its handling of China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Trump was the first US president to be given a state dinner in the Forbidden City. Andrew Harnik\/AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From strategic partner to competitor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although China\u2019s rise had been a concern of the previous Bush and Obama administrations, it was the Trump administration that transformed the entire narrative on China from strategic partner to \u201cstrategic competitor<\/a>\u201d, starting with its National Defence Strategy report<\/a> released just one month after Trump\u2019s 2017 China visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This read, in part,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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China and Russia want to shape a world antithetical to US values and interests. China seeks to displace the United States in the Indo-Pacific region, expand the reaches of its state-driven economic model and reorder the region in its favour.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This new way of thinking deemed the US\u2019s decades-long engagement strategy<\/a>, deployed since President Richard Nixon in the early 1970s, a failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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US President Richard Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai toast in 1972. Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Prior to Trump, the US had sought to encourage China to grow into a responsible stakeholder of a rules-based international order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Trump administration believes such \u201cgoodwill<\/a>\u201d engagement has been exploited by China\u2019s \u201call-of-nation long-term strategy<\/a>\u201d of asserting its power in the Indo-Pacific region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Trump administration, this is centred on \u201cpredatory economics\u201d in trade and technology, political coercion of less-powerful democracies and Chinese military advancement in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump takes a unilateral, transactional approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s sledgehammer approach to the US-China relationship has been problematic at best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For one, Trump viewed the relationship transactionally, hardly scratching the surface of the deeper structural issues \u2014 such as state subsidies and labour standards \u2014 that exist between the countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He believed he could reduce the massive US trade deficits with China through a \u201cbig, beautiful monster<\/a>\u201d of a trade deal and this would be a silver bullet for both the economy and his re-election prospects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This explains all the flip-flops during the drawn-out trade negotiations, during which Beijing largely managed to use the deal as bait to keep larger strategic issues off the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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China and the US signed a trade deal in January, but relations have only soured further since then. ERIK S. LESSER\/EPA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, Trump\u2019s policies toward China, at least on the trade front, were unilateral. Instead of finding common ground with allies, Washington angered and deserted its allies by invoking punitive tariffs (Canada<\/a>), renegotiating trade agreements to the US advantage (Japan<\/a> and South Korea<\/a>) and reducing its security commitments under NATO<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, the Trump administration relinquished US leadership in global institutions dealing with trade, climate change and human rights. As a result, the US lost its allies when it needed them most and gave China a new platform on the international stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China hawks get the upper hand<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s China policy has been further mired by competing interests in his cabinet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to former National Security Adviser John Bolton<\/a>, Trump\u2019s team was \u201cbadly fractured\u201d in its handling of the trade war against China and its wider China policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spectrum of voices in the cabinet ranged from China moderates such as Treasurer Steven Mnuchin and senior advisor Jared Kushner to sceptics such as US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to more radical China bashers such as Bolton, Vice President Mike Pence<\/a> and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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China hawks like Mike Pompeo have become increasingly vocal in their anti-China rhetoric in the past year. Andrew Harnik\/AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As Trump became increasingly frustrated with a recalcitrant Xi reneging on \u201cthe deal\u201d in mid-2019, followed by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the China hawks in the administration gained the upper hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although this led to a more coherent approach to addressing the strategic challenges posed by China, the result was more direct confrontations with Beijing and heightened tensions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The past year has marked a low point in relations with tit-for-tat actions on a number of fronts, including<\/p>\n\n\n\n