By releasing global prices, President Donald Trump promised to redo the world for the benefit of American workers. A beneficiary could be the country he considers the main opponent – China.
Asia’s largest economy quickly tasted identical rates in the United States and said it would impose export controls on rare vital earth elements in consumer and medical technology.
But unlike his first mandate, Trump is not only aims at China, but the whole world – including the American allies who had increasingly joined the Washington line in Beijing.
Only a few days before the announcement of Trump's “Liberation Day” prices, China has moved to relaunch free trade talks with Japan and South Korea, both American allies linked to treaties with a deeply rooted skepticism about Beijing.
“If Trump's unilateralism continues, I expect Beijing to court these capitals more aggressively, positioning itself as the more stable economic anchor of the region,” said Lizzi Lee, a member of the Chinese economy of the Asia Society Policy Institute for China's analysis.
“And let's not forget the optics. China cramps Trump's prices as proof of the drop in the United States-using protectionism, intimidating allies and withdrawing global standards,” she said.
Yun Sun, a principal researcher at the Stimson Center, said that she expected China to be “a little colder” in response to Trump prices, but said Beijing did not seem as worried as in his first mandate.
“I think the Chinese see it more as an opportunity and believe that the United States is actively going on,” she said.
“There are a number of injured parties that had been solid and faithful allies in the United States,” she added. “Now, their confidence in the approach that the United States adopts in the world is – I would not say broken – but at least in doubt.”
– bury the opening of the United States to China –
Certainly, China will probably feel a real pain in American prices. He sent more than $ 500 billion in goods in the United States last year, the trade balance far in favor of China.
China's criticisms have praised what they saw as a death death knell for an ancient quasi-consensus in Washington on the value of the integration of Asian power in the world economy.
“The idea that Communist China could be a member responsible for an international commercial regime – the World Trade Organization – which should be based on equal and fair trade, is a joke,” said representative Chris Smith, a republican who, for decades, mocked against Bill Clinton in 1994 of the negotiations of negotiation of the China of Human Rights.
“Unlike previous presidents, President Trump perfectly understands the nature and scope of the problem – and the existential threat posed by China – and what must be done,” said Smith.
Jacob Stokes, a principal researcher at the Center for a New American Security, noted that China still has a series of problems with other countries, territorial disputes with Japan, India and Southeast Asia to concerns in Europe about the Chinese embrace of Russia in the Ukraine War.
“China has been able to undermine its own positions, in particular with its neighbors, by an assertion and even an assault,” said Stokes.
– attention from China –
But Stokes said that former president Joe Biden had been effective in forming coalitions with other countries to put pressure on China, on the problems of access to fifth generation internet networks.
“Insofar as Beijing felt a little isolated at the end of the Biden administration, I think that a large part of this pressure took place while the place of disturbance is now clearly Washington,” said Stokes.
While Trump and Biden's political decision -makers identified China as the first American rival, Lee, of the Asia Society Policy Institute, said that Trump had fundamentally seen President Xi Jinping “not as a villain, but as a peer – another strong man”.
“For Trump, the economic war does not concern the economy or even the stock markets – it is the optics of domination and force,” said Lee.
“And that leaves just enough room for a pivot – if XI offers the kind of victory that Trump can mark.”
SCT / MLM
