China sees an opportunity to present its own world as a tranquil waiting: A U.S.-China perspective on the new US-China deal
The Chinese leadership would not say no if there was an expectation that China would play a more active role in world affairs. But he also believes that China would avoid direct confrontation with the U.S. and avoid claims to leadership in every aspect of international affairs.
But speaking to some of China’s America watchers, views of any opportunities that the new administration might offer are tempered by caution and skepticism about China’s appetite to eat America’s lunch.
In January 2020 China and the US signed a deal to lower China’s trade surplus with the U.S., but it fell apart quickly suggesting that China will be skeptical of any proposal by Trump to strike a new deal.
People’s University professor of international relations Shi Yinhong, who has been a visiting scholar at four American universities since the 1980s, is even more skeptical of any opportunity.
He believes Trump is unlikely to succeed in striking grand bargains, judging from his failure to reach deals with, for example, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2018 and 2019.
This means, he says, “that you behave very cautiously on the international arena. You don’t want to overstretch yourself. You don’t want to make promises that you cannot fulfill.”
He says to look at the deconstruction of foreign aid projects. “It appears to give China an unprecedented chance to present its own version of a just world.”
Xie Tao, dean of the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at Beijing Foreign Studies University, who received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 2007, also sees an opening for China.
Wang was a political scientist at UCLA and he feels that Trump uses tariffs to pressure countries into making deals, and if that doesnt work, he raises the stakes.
“I’ll be speaking to President Xi. I have a great relationship with him. We’re going to have a very good relationship, but we have a trillion-dollar deficit because of Biden,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on March 21.
He says Napoleon said don’t do anything to disturb his enemy when he makes a mistake. “So I think China’s strategy will be more of a tranquil waiting.”
Wang thinks there is no need for China to rush things since the US is going in a different direction.
Wang did not live through the political campaigns and economic hardship that older Chinese did. Wang came of age during China’s reform era, when the country was relatively open, and the economy grew rapidly.
What Do U.S. Politics and Chinese View of the United States? A Conversation with Wang Haolan and Ying-Mills
The actions taken by the Trump administration have been accused of creating a global leadership vacuum that will be filled by U.S rivals, especially China.
Regardless of how Chinese observers think China should respond to any perceived openings or opportunities, the changes in the U.S. resonate on a personal level with America watchers, many of whom have lived and been educated in the U.S.
Zha spent time at the University of South Carolina and Columbia University during the early 1980s when Beijing began allowing students to study in America.
Zha is one of China’s liberals, who used to “look up to America as a role model to help change China in the more democratic direction.” She said recent developments in America under the Trump administration were “really shocking and bewildered.”
“What’s happening in the US does a better job of demonizing America as an imperialist power than state propaganda could do,” she says.
By contrast, Wang Haolan, who was born in 1997, is one of many Chinese who have never seen the U.S. as a beacon. “I have never believed the U.S. was that great,” he says. There is a reason for the name of his popularpodcast, The American Roulette.
Reply to Donald Trump’s New Trade Tariffs with its Own Charges on American Goods: China Announces an Extra $34% Rate on US Imports
China has responded to Donald Trump’s new trade tariffs with its own charges on US goods. China has announced a levy at the same rate for US goods shipped to China, after Trump imposed an extra 34% charge on Chinese imports into the US.
The country added 11 American businesses to its “Unreliable Entity List” after accusing them of military and technological cooperation with Taiwan. Skydio, a company that began making consumer drones but pivoted to enterprise in 2023), is one of the new additions.
It has also barred 11 US companies from trading in the country, applied new restrictions to rare earth mineral exports, filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization (WTO), and started investigations into imports of American medical equipment.
“China urges the United States to immediately cancel its unilateral tariff measures and resolve trade differences through consultation in an equal, respectful and mutually beneficial manner,” the statement concludes.
The Chinese levy will go into effect on April 10th, one day after the US’s new tariff starts to apply. China has also imposed strict limits on the exports of some rare earth elements that are mined almost exclusively in China, used in electric vehicles, weapons, and other tech.