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The Biden administration could face an even more difficult task in concluding a trade deal with China than the Trump administration four years ago. Republican lawmakers stand ready to pounce on any supposed weakness in China by Mr Biden, and diplomatic and economic ties between the two countries have deteriorated.
“Against the backdrop of global opposition to the Cold War and partition, the United States has blatantly violated its policy not to pursue a new Cold War and formed an Anglo-Saxon clique,” said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on September 28 as Response to the Australian submarine deal.
The release in the US of Meng Wanzhou, a Huawei executive who was detained in Canada at the request of the US, and the subsequent release of two Canadians and two Americans by China did little to alleviate tensions.
Mr Trump’s tariffs have discouraged imports of some Chinese goods, but exports to the United States have soared in the coronavirus pandemic as Americans bought exercise equipment, furniture, toys and other products during the lockdown.
China’s leadership has also doubled the type of domestic industrial subsidies that the United States has long objected to. They have greatly expanded their programs, launched more than a decade ago, aimed at eliminating the purchase of computer chips and passenger aircraft – two of the United States’ main exports to China – among other industrial products.
The Biden government has been looking for ways to convince China to limit its broad industrial subsidies, but it will be difficult. The governments of George W. Bush, Obama and Trump all tried, with little success, to get China to abandon its longstanding subsidies to domestic producers in order to free itself from any dependence on imports.
China’s head of state Xi Jinping has called for ensuring that other countries remain dependent on China for essential goods so that they do not threaten to cease their own sales to China. The United States has done so on issues such as surveillance, forced labor, and crackdown on democracy advocates in Hong Kong.
