US President Joe Biden believes that it is not China or other world players that should develop the rules of world trade, but "market democracies."

This is stated in an article by the head of the White House, published in The Washington Post. 

The material is dedicated to the upcoming trip of the American president to Europe.

In Brussels, Biden plans to meet with the heads of the European Commission and the European Council to discuss cooperation issues with them.

“We will focus on making sure that the rules of trade and technology are set by market democracies in the 21st century, not by China or anyone else,” Biden wrote.

  • Joe Biden

  • © REUTERS / Jonathan Ernst

Former US President Donald Trump, speaking at the June 5 Republican convention in North Carolina, also paid attention to China.

“Now is the time for America and the world to demand reparations and accountability from the Chinese Communist Party.

China has to pay, it has to pay, "Trump said, referring to China's alleged role in the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

The politician believes that the world community should "jointly present China with an invoice for at least $ 10 trillion as compensation for the damage caused."

“The damage is much, much more serious.

First of all, all countries must collectively cancel all their debts to China - at the expense of reparations, ”said the former US President.

Note that earlier, Republicans in the US House of Representatives made a call to study the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lawmakers have asked the speaker of the lower house of parliament, Nancy Pelosi, to launch an investigation in Congress to "hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for its actions that led to the global coronavirus pandemic."

Congressmen believe a likely version, according to which the pandemic began due to a virus leak in a Chinese laboratory.

These calls are supported by the Democratic Party as well.

Democratic congressmen have put their signatures on bills, one of which provides for the creation of a bipartisan commission to study the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic by analogy with the commission to investigate the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack.

The second document proposes to give the families of those who died from coronavirus infection the right to sue China and other countries that allegedly deliberately misled the international community in connection with the pandemic. 

Containment policy

Experts note that tensions between Washington and Beijing began to build even before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

The start of the confrontation was given by the 45th President of the United States Donald Trump - the politician accused the Chinese authorities of manipulating the exchange rate of the national currency to gain an advantage in the world trade arena: allegedly Beijing deliberately undervalued the yuan.

Also, the Trump administration accused the Chinese side of illegally obtaining American technology and intellectual property.

In 2018, Trump launched a trade war with China, raising import duties on the import of a number of goods from the PRC.

Beijing responded by imposing similar restrictions on the import of American products.

  • © REUTERS / Shannon Stapleton

The parties continued to exchange attacks until early 2020, when Beijing and Washington were able to agree on the so-called first phase of the trade deal.

According to the agreements, the PRC undertook obligations to purchase US products worth $ 200 billion within two years. This was supposed to smooth out the existing trade imbalance between the countries.

According to the US trade office, in 2019 it amounted to $ 345 billion. 

However, the parties failed to develop this tendency.

In the summer of 2020, Donald Trump announced that he had lost interest in a trade deal with China.

Later, the ex-president even promised to consider the possibility of "severing the economies of the United States and China" in case of re-election for a second term. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated tensions between the countries, as American politicians used it as a new pretext to attack Beijing.

Donald Trump lost the presidential election, but the new head of the White House, Joe Biden, continued the anti-Chinese course of his predecessor.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in February 2021, Biden called on the international community to "fight back the economic abuses and coercion employed by the Chinese government" that allegedly "undermine the foundations of the international economic system." 

Similar accusations against Beijing were also set forth in Biden's trade policy program.

The document said that the Chinese side by its actions is causing "damage to the American workers" and also threatens the "technical advantage" of the United States.

  • Chinese company Xiaomi logo

  • globallookpress.com

  • © Tpg / Keystone Press Agency

As Konstantin Blokhin, a leading researcher at the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted in an interview with RT, the idea of ​​the need to contain the PRC, which Trump initially promoted, took root in the minds of not only Republicans, but also Democrats.

“The US Democratic Party has begun to realize that China is challenging American leadership in one of the key areas - the economic, and that they will not be able to restrain it, like the USSR.

Therefore, the American leadership is acting in different ways.

On the one hand, China is accused of a pandemic in order to demonize it in the eyes of the population.

On the other hand, they are trying to limit the technological development of China by striking at Chinese companies, ”the expert explained. 

Undermining the rules

Recall that the Trump team, shortly before the end of his presidential term, included nine Chinese companies on the sanctions list, including the aircraft manufacturer Comac and the mobile phone manufacturer Xiaomi.

The US authorities ordered American investors to get rid of the assets of these companies by November 11, 2021.

The Biden administration continued Trump's sanctions policy.

In early June, Joe Biden signed a decree expanding the list by 59 more companies.

The enterprises that fell under the restrictions are connected, according to Washington, with the military-industrial complex of the PRC.

According to the White House website, the decree "ensures that US investments will not support Chinese companies that undermine the security or values ​​of the United States and our allies."

  • Donald Trump

  • © REUTERS / Jonathan Drake

“This decree cuts off US investment in supporting China’s defense sector and at the same time enhances the US government’s ability to respond to the threat posed by Chinese surveillance technology firms that promote religious surveillance both inside and outside China. or ethnic minorities or otherwise contribute to the oppression and serious violations of human rights, ”- emphasized in the White House.

However, experts doubt that US attempts to undermine the economic power of the PRC will be crowned with success.

According to Alexander Belchuk, Professor of the Department of World and National Economy of the All-Russian Academy of Foreign Trade, China is already the first economy in the world in many respects.

“For example, China is the leader in terms of production and exports, and its share in world trade.

It can be expected that in the future, China will increase even more power, and the United States will continue to fight it with unsubstantiated accusations.

And many people believe in such information propaganda - in this regard, Washington's policy is very effective, ”the expert said.

At the same time, US actions against China undermine the rules of world trade and, as a result, worsen the trade climate, the expert added.

Konstantin Blokhin adheres to a similar point of view.

“The US wants to reverse China's economic growth, but the problem is that there is a colossal economic interdependence between the countries that has built up over decades. The countries are linked by a colossal trade turnover. In addition, China holds about $ 1 trillion in American securities. And this gives Beijing the tools to put pressure on Washington. Therefore, the separation of the two economies from each other will proceed slowly, and ultimately it will negatively affect the entire world trade and provoke an increase in commodity prices, ”the expert concluded.