06 August 2020 - 12:16US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in more cordial times, on June 29, 2019. Picture: REUTERS/KEVIN LAMARQUE
This summer’s developments have not been encouraging on that front. While Trump has long been focused on US-China trade, technology is taking centre stage of that trade fight. In recent weeks we’ve seen countries such as the UK bar Chinese state-champion Huawei from their future 5G telecoms infrastructure, done at least in part to appease US demands. Beijing has vowed retaliation to the move.
As the tech fight between the US and China continues to evolve, China has shown little sign of backing down. This move from the US isn’t surprising — the US political class has spent years evolving into this anti-China position, and it cannot change course easily. Even if Joe Biden wins the election in November, we are likely to see a similar anti-China bent is US foreign policy-making, even if the accompanying rhetoric is more subdued.