US And China Trade War Between Offensive and Defensive Realism

Mian F

Published on: 2021-03-07

Abstract

The arrival of Donald Trump in power has brought many changes in international relations especially between the United States and China. Since his arrival, Trump wanted to impose his hegemonic will to all countries of the world by posing as the real defender the United States. "America first" In its approach Trump thus created a commercial tension between China and the United States for over a year through the imposition of tariffs on Chinese products. By the end of March 2018, Washington had imposed additional tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on Chinese aluminum. On July 6, 2018, a first tranche of customs surcharges on $ 34 billion of Chinese imports was targeted. Beijing countered by taxing the same amount of imports from the United States. This war has neither a winner nor a loser because it has consequences for the economy of the two countries. However, it should be noted that even though China was the victim of the American offensive. It defends itself well and it has many assets to face this war more than the United States. First, it should be noted that China controls its own economic system. It can devalue its own currency to reduce the effect of the crisis. China has a second weapon, which is the "Made in China 2025" plan, launched three years ago to develop a more innovative industry and gain autonomy in ten sectors (including information technology, but also robotics, aeronautics and space, ocean engineering, electric vehicles, biomedicine, new materials, energy. This is his third weapon to counter the US embargo relaunching the comprehensive regional economic partnership with its Asian partners to counter the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) launched by Barrack In addition, China has the new initiative of "one belt, one road" to reach Europe by land, crossing the republics of Central Asia and Russia, or by sea, through Africa.