Both countries have sought to disentangle supply chains around sensitive technologies with national security, and in the American case, human rights dimensions. U.S. officials have sought to raise awareness of the risks for American firms of doing business in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. China’s Vice Premier Liu He and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen talked via video call and discussed the economic situation and US-China relations. According to readouts from China’s commerce ministry and the US treasury department, the two sides agreed that developments in China and the US have important implications for the global economy and it’s crucial for both countries to strengthen communication and coordination of macroeconomic policies. Chinese Vice Premier Liu He expressed China’s views on US tariffs and sanctions and the treatment of Chinese companies in the meeting. A closer look at the dynamics leading to the decline in China’s relative power, however, uncovers deep-rooted barriers—individual, structural, and institutional—that impede its international ascendance.
The United States is firmly committed to maintaining its edge by investing in U.S. technology and scientific innovations without supporting the PRC’s malign activities. We will work together with democratic allies globally to develop a common agenda to push back against the PRC’s abusive and coercive economic practices in the trade space, in the technology space, and in regards to human rights. On trade and investment, there has been considerable common ground and many areas of mutual interest between the two countries. The United States has pursued commercial opportunities, exports, and profits in China; China has sought U.S. investment, technology, and support for Chinese accession into global trade regimes. U.S. support for trade and investment in China has matured from Most Favored Nation status in the 1980s and 1990s to China’s integration into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. China has in return demonstrated a willingness to open up its state-owned economy, dramatically reducing tariffs, overhauling laws and regulations, and permitting greater private ownership, property rights, and transparency.
Growth rates have frequently approached 10 percent per year over the past 10 years, and in 2002 China was the recipient of more than $50 billion in foreign investment. There are now 2 million private companies in China, an emerging middle class, and ambitious infrastructure development projects. China is a global center for manufacturing and a regional economic power, particularly since the Japanese economy has stalled. This level of economic openness and growth in China was unthinkable 30 years ago and owes much to the relationship between the United States and China.
Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalists eventually retreat to the islands of Taiwan and Hainan, leaving communist leader Mao Zedong to declare the establishment of the People’s Republic of China on the mainland in 1949. US diplomats meet with Mao but, put off by his intention to cosy up to his ideological bedfellows in Moscow, choose to recognise Chiang’s Republic of China government as the sole legitimate government of bitbuy review China. In 2019, Malaita Province in Solomon Islands made geopolitical headlines when its former premier, Daniel Suidani, came out against the country’s closer bilateral relations with China. USIP experts Carla Freeman, Mirna Galic, Daniel Markey, and Vikram Singh assess what the strategy has accomplished in the past two years, how it has navigated global shocks and its impact on partnerships in the region.
Meanwhile, Chair of the PCAOB Erica Y. Williams stated that “On paper, the agreement signed today grants the PCAOB complete access to the audit work papers, audit personnel, and other information we need to inspect and investigate any firm we choose”. Throughout the summit and the 29th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, which takes place from November 17 to 19, President Xi Jinping will also be holding meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron, Senegalese President Macky Sall, and Argentine President Alberto Fernández, among others. According to the board’s announcement, it had determined that it “was able to secure complete access to inspect and investigate audit firms”. A fact sheet released by the board reveals that these audit firms are KPMG Huazhen LLP, headquartered in mainland China, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), headquartered in Hong Kong. Due to the limited scope of companies affected – the parent company of Raytheon Missiles & Defense was reportedly not added to the list because it is an import aviation supplier to Chinese airlines – these sanctions have largely been viewed as symbolic rather than a significant escalation of sanctions.
Chinese Ambassador to the United Kingdom Liu Xiaoming brazenly criticized journalists who reported on human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian tweeted attacks at government officials worldwide and spread disinformation about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. PRC President Jiang Zemin made it a priority to demonstrate enhanced relations and cooperation between the United States and China in the war on terror as China moved toward a change in leadership.
Relations between the world’s two largest economic powers, the United States and China, are at lows not seen since the aftermath of 1989’s Tiananmen Square massacre. China’s human rights abuses, especially in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, border aggressiveness, and “wolf warrior” diplomacy, combined with the Trump administration’s legacy and the ongoing pandemic, have left bilateral relations at a nadir. The EU sanctioned four Chinese individuals, including a top security director, for alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang. The US, on the same day, sanctioned two Chinese government officials in connection with what they called the “serious” human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. Statements released by both sides indicate that the two presidents discussed a wide range of issues, including their complex bilateral relations, their stances on Taiwan, and views on health security, climate crisis, global energy supplies, and key regional challenges in North Korea, Afghanistan, and Iran.
In 2020, China was America’s largest goods trading partner, third largest export market, and largest source of imports. Most U.S. companies operating in China report being committed to the China market for the long term. As America’s unipolarity in the international system has waned, there has been renewed focus on the role of major powers in the international system, including the European Union, Russia, India, and Japan.
The pattern of behavior is now widely known as Wolf Warrior diplomacy, in reference to the top-grossing Chinese film Wolf Warrior 2, an action-heavy nationalistic confection. This approach long predates 2020, but it has become the dominant note of China’s diplomatic interactions over the past year. The damage inflicted on Hong Kong’s freedoms in 2020—and subsequently on China’s relations with Western liberal democracies, including the United States—appears to be irreversible for the foreseeable future. On the last day of the Trump administration, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says China “is committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, China, targeting Uyghur Muslims and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups”.
In addition, the readout said that “China stated its serious position on Taiwan and other major issues of principle. Blinken was supposed to visit China in February of this year, but the trip was canceled following the fallout of the so-called “balloon incident”. Meanwhile, the readout from the Department of State writes that Blinken “emphasized the importance of diplomacy and maintaining open channels of communication across the full range of issues to reduce the risk of misperception and miscalculation”. Blinken also met with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and senior diplomat Wang Yi on Sunday and Monday morning, with whom he held what was described as “candid and constructive” conversations. The announcement also states that the visit follows the directive of President Joe Biden to deepen communication with China, a commitment he reached with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their last meeting at the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia in November 2022.
President Biden reportedly secured China’s agreement to resume military-to-military talks during his meeting with President Xi Jinping in November. Chinese General Liu Zhenli has held a video call with US General CQ Brown, the first senior military communication between Washington and Beijing since they were suspended in August 2022. The Chinese also stated that the US “needs to take seriously China’s concerns and do more things that contribute to the growth of the [military-to-military] ifc markets reviews relationship.” The Chinese side also emphasized its position on Taiwan and its interests in the South China Sea. The talks follow the resumption of bilateral military talks in December 2023, after such talks were suspended for over a year. China Briefing previously monitored and documented major developments during the US-China trade war in the Trump era. And no relationship seethes, across such a wide and consequential set of issues, with more tension and mistrust.
The former is a member of the treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), while the latter has refused to sign the international agreement. Taiwan arouses passionate and historically rooted sentiment on both sides, and this has periodically led to inflamed rhetoric and escalated tensions. A principal goal on both sides has been—-and should remain-—the avoidance of military conflict over Taiwan.
According to the law, individuals or entities involved in making or implementing discriminatory measures against Chinese citizens or entities could be put on an anti-sanctions list. Chinese authorities also have the power to take countermeasures against other individuals or organizations with specific ties to blacklisted individuals or entities. A statement posted Tuesday on the website of China’s mission to the European Union said that Beijing did not pose a “systemic challenge” to any country and added NATO should not exaggerate China’s military power.
According to the MOFCOM announcement, the two units were added to the list in order to “safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests”. According to a recent report by Reuters, the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) will begin another round of audits of accounting firms in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland representing US-listed Chinese companies as part of its ongoing audit work of foreign companies that are listed on US stock exchanges. Under the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (HFCAA), the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) can delist a foreign company from an exchange in the US if the PCAOB is not able to audit its requested reports for three consecutive years. Due to clashing legislation in China and the US, many US-listed Chinese companies were unable to allow the PCAOB to audit their operations until an agreement was reached between US and Chinese regulators last year. Senior US State Department official Daniel Kritenbrink and White House National Security Council’s senior director for China affairs Sarah Beran visited Beijing, where they met with Director-General of the Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Yang Tao and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ma Zhaoxu.
The spokesperson also said that the move is “politicizing business engagement” and that it is “blatant economic coercion and tech bullying”, “violates the principles of market economy and fair competition”, and “destabilizes global industrial and supply chains and hurts the interests of both China and the US and the global business community”. The US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has announced the removal of 27 parties from the “Unverified List” after it determined it had successfully verified beaxy exchange review “the legitimacy and reliability of foreign parties receiving US exports”. The entities were originally added to the list because the BIS had been unable to verify their bona fides, which it describes as “legitimacy and reliability relating to the end use and end user of items subject to the EAR [Export Administration Regulations]”. China and the US have been embroiled in a range of trade disputes since former US President Trump imposed additional trade tariffs (Section 301 tariffs) on Chinese goods in 2018.
It remains to be seen how the sudden turn of events will affect US-China and China-Canada relations. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was just re-elected in September after calling for early elections and his government appears keen to maintain strong economic and trade ties with Beijing. The new rule advances a process that could lead more than 200 companies to be kicked off US exchanges and could make some Chinese firms less attractive to investors. It also requires enhanced disclosure from Chinese firms listing in the US via a variable interest entity (VIE). Chinese and other foreign firms are required to declare whether they’re owned or controlled by any foreign government.