US-China relations: Trump is attacking Chinese tech firms to preserve economic dominance
- There are two ways the US can win an economic war against China – coax its economy to grow faster than China’s or stifle the rise of the Chinese economy
- The fastest way to victory for the US is to derail liberal market reforms in China and turn its economy away from the path of greater liberalisation
“The most important issue for our nation and the world in the 21st century is the United States’ response to the global ambitions of the Chinese Communist Party.” US Attorney General William Barr unlocked a defining code to the current state of the world on July 17.
The United States wants to defeat the Chinese economy. It is up to China to rise above it. Judging from Barr’s message, if China wasn’t globally ambitious, the US would have lost the basis for such a response.
Barr used the words “superior” once, “superpower” once, “replace” three times, “dominate” or “domination” four times, and “coup” twice in his speech. He described China as a “near-peer competitor”.
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Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple respond to Congress about whether China steals US technology
The complex relationship that defines this century is therefore reduced to a kindergarten level of clarity. China is not allowed to replace the US and “win the contest for the commanding heights of the global economy”. The economy may not be the be-all and end-all, but it is clearly the end goal of the current policies.
