`This is an incredible success for our entire country,` US President Donald Trump said in January, referring to the phase one trade agreement signed between Washington and Beijing on January 15,
This agreement was considered a positive step forward for US-China relations since the trade war broke out in 2018, leading to an extremely tense atmosphere between the two countries in many fields.
US President Donald Trump (left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping at a meeting within the framework of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, in June 2019.
The US President’s reaction comes from the Covid-19 situation, a `variable` affecting the world this year.
`I’m very disappointed in China. They should never have let the epidemic happen. I made a great trade deal, but now I don’t feel like it anymore. The ink was barely dry on the deal.
The Trump administration has repeatedly accused Beijing of covering up the severity of the initial pandemic and not providing enough information, even threatening to punish and force the country to pay compensation for heavy losses due to Covid-19.
According to experts, in the context of increasingly shaky re-election prospects, due to the reaction to Covid-19 and the wave of anti-racism protests that have upset many groups of voters, Trump seems to bet on winning.
A typical example is the US in July asking China to close the Consulate General in Houston, Texas, accusing this diplomatic facility of being involved in espionage and intellectual property theft.
Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), commented that with the move to close the consulate, `it is difficult to continue to say that this is not a new Cold War.`
The `tit for tat` moves surrounding the Hong Kong issue are also considered one of the factors `fueling` tensions.
The law allows Washington to punish officials and police deemed to be violating the city’s autonomy, as well as banks that conduct important transactions with them.
The confrontation between Washington and Beijing is also evident in the East Sea issue, with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s July 13 statement rejecting almost all of China’s sovereignty claims in the region.
`We are strengthening US policy on maritime claims in the East Sea in accordance with international law, rejecting China’s intimidation, bullying, and maritime control claims,` Foreign Affairs said.
The statement was made not long after two US aircraft carriers participated in exercises in the East Sea, coinciding with the time when China held illegal exercises in Vietnam’s Hoang Sa archipelago.
One day after the US statement, Chinese President Xi Jinping had a phone call with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, two countries that do not have overlapping claims in the Sea.
On the surface, these seem to be just normal diplomatic calls, but observers say they may also be intended to `implicitly respond` to the US statement, sending a message that China’s relations with other countries
The US aircraft carrier strike group USS Ronald Reagan and USS Nimitz conduct exercises in the East Sea on July 6.
Security tensions between the US and China also revolve around the Taiwan issue.
In September, US Deputy Secretary of State Keith Krach also visited Taiwan, a move that caused China to immediately dispatch a large number of fighters and bombers to conduct exercises near the Taiwan Strait, seemingly
In addition to the above conflicts, another notable point in US-China tensions this year is the war in the technology field, where the two countries compete in artificial intelligence, 5G networks and applications, which are considered
From May 2019 until now, the US has put more than 150 branches of the Chinese telecommunications corporation Huawei on the `blacklist`, and at the same time punished China’s leading artificial intelligence companies such as Megvii or SenseTime.
Even after losing to Biden in the presidential election, Trump continued to `hit` China, such as adding the country’s companies to the `blacklist` and tightening visas for political parties.
According to Chinese analysts, all of the Trump administration’s recent moves are the final effort to divide the two countries’ relationship, leaving Biden with few options left and forced to continue his tough strategy with China.
However, some Beijing strategists assess that US-China relations still have a chance to turn around to prevent a new `Cold War` under Biden, whose leadership is expected to implement new policies.
`The biggest difference between Trump and Biden is that Biden and his team of advisors clearly understand that severing relations between the US and China is unreasonable and goes against US interests. They also clearly understand that the two countries
According to Wang Jisi, an expert on US-China relations at Peking University, China is unlikely to make concessions on issues such as Xinjiang, Tibet or Hong Kong, but it can improve America’s view of itself.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on December 7 that the `most urgent task` now for Beijing and Washington is to work together to `remove all barriers, to achieve a smooth transition in the relationship.`
