Sino-US decoupling took its most prominent global stage to date when Donald Trump and Xi Jinping brought their virus row and trade tensions to the 75th United Nations General Assembly. “We must hold accountable the nation which unleashed this plague onto the world, China,” said Trump. This article is a summary of major news items concerning China US relations in September 2020. “Any attempt of politicising the issue or stigmatisation must be rejected,” said Xi, also by pre-recorded video, who urged countries to respect the WTO and not bury their heads in the sand “like an ostrich” to avoid globalisation. “We are moving in a very dangerous direction,” warned António Guterres, the UN secretary general. “Our world cannot afford a future where the two largest economies split the globe in a great fraction, each with its own trade and financial rules and internet and artificial intelligence capacities.” Yet exactly such splitting continued throughout the month. In the digital war,…

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All the mixed signals were on display this month of the troubled, complex and still wide-ranging relationship between the world’s two largest economies. President Trump cancelled talks but top trade officials managed to speak even as both sides swapped barbs and sanctions. This article is a summary of important news affecting China US relations in August 2020. “I had a great relationship with President Xi. I like him, but I don’t feel the same way now,” after the pandemic, said Trump, admitting they haven’t spoken “in a long time”. Later he added that he had cancelled talks with China. “I don’t want to talk to China right now.” Top US and Chinese trade officials did hold their first formal dialogue since early May (by phone), reaffirming commitment to the Phase 1 deal. Beijing is set to buy a record amount of American soybeans this year, possibly enough to salvage the deal even if not reaching the promised total.…

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Bilateral relations appear at their worst for decades. Diplomats at China’s Houston consulate burned documents into the night after the US gave China 72 hours to close “to protect American intellectual property and Americans’ private information”. Beijing then ordered the US shut its consulate in Chengdu, southwest China. This article is a summary of important US China news in July 2020. Amid the heated rhetoric, and continued decoupling, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi told his French counterpart he blames the turmoil on the US – “Such behaviour is stark power politics that can be captured by one word: hegemony.” Earlier in the month he had called for reconciliation, and suggested three lists to identify and resolve disputes. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo angered Beijing and the World Health Organisation by telling British lawmakers China had “bought” the WHO head. In the fourth speech in a month critical of Beijing from a top US official, he called on China’s citizens to join…

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The US and China exchanged plenty of critical words over the Covid-19 pandemic and Hong Kong – but they’re still buying and selling stuff too. Soybean exports from the US during one June week were the largest in at least 16 months, with the majority headed to China. This article is a summary of important China US news in June 2020. The hard-won US-China trade deal “is over”, said Trump adviser Peter Navarro. “The China Trade Deal is fully intact,” President Trump Tweeted, as the confusion roiled markets. In 2019, Trump had pleaded with Xi Jinping for domestic political help – stressing the importance of increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in this November’s electoral outcome – and subordinated national-security issues to his own re-election prospects, former adviser claimed John Bolton claimed. And Beijing wants him to win again, concluded Bloomberg, however much Trump argues China is rooting for Joe Biden. Amid Bolton’s allegations, Trump signed…

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The coronavirus pandemic has worsened already badly frayed China US relations. “This is worse than Pearl Harbor” or 9/11, President Trump said of America’s “worst attack”, that “could have been stopped in China.” “We could cut off the whole relationship,” he later threatened. Beijing aimed most fire at Secretary of State Pompeo, who changed tack to admit Covid-19 may not have come from a Wuhan lab. This article is a summary of important China US news in May 2020. Beijing’s new security law means Hong Kong no longer warrants special treatment under US law, declared Pompeo, and Trump could within days issue an executive order on wide-ranging economic penalties against Hong Kong and China. The US House of Representatives approved legislation calling for sanctions on Chinese officials responsible for oppression of Uighur Muslims. In the latest push towards financial decoupling, the US Senate passed a bill that could force some Chinese companies to de-list from US exchanges. Baidu,…

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Despite some talk of co-operation over Covid-19, warring words and mass expulsions of US and Chinese journalists highlighted the turmoil of US China relations. Diplomatic ties between the world’s two largest economies reached their lowest ebb in more than 30 years, declared the FT. This article is a summary of important China US news in March 2020. After the G20 virtual meeting of global leaders, the two most important attendees spoke by phone. Xi Jinping called for concrete US steps to push forward cooperation to contain the pandemic, and promised China was “willing to continue to share information and experience with the United States without reservation.” Donald Trump refrained from calling Covid-19 the “Chinese virus”, and claimed “we are working closely together. Much respect!” The crisis represents Trump’s biggest test yet on US-China relations. His administration pushed the UN Security Council to call attention to the Chinese origins of the coronavirus. The US ambassador to London wrote that China had endangered the…

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The US and China made moves to implement the trade deal aiming to ease their troubled relations, even as the new coronavirus spread in China. Xi Jinping told Donald Trump early in the month that China’s economic development would not be affected by the outbreak, according to state broadcaster CCTV. Yet the huge scale of the crisis raises multiple questions. This article is a summary of important China US news in February 2020. Beijing may even delay its “parliamentary” sessions, but for how long can you pause an economy? A popular Chinese conspiracy theory claims the US engineered the coronavirus to keep China down. A White House spokesman said the two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to implementing the phase one trade deal. US officials confirmed that Chinese leaders have lifted import restrictions on US poultry and pet food, and taken other steps required by the deal. Live American chickens are now winging their way to Chinese kitchens. Cheap…

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“We love each other, Donald Trump told Davos about Xi Jinping. “Our relationship with China has probably never been better. We went through a very rough patch, but it has never, ever been better.” The good news of a trade deal calmed the turmoil of US China relations, but the coronavirus crisis worsened. This article is a summary of important China US news in January 2020. President Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He signed a phase one trade deal at the White House, thereby calming the nearly two-year-long trade war. Read all 96 pages here, or this Reuters factbox. The US agreed to halve the tariff rate it imposed on 1st September on a $120 billion list of Chinese goods, to 7.5%; China agreed to increase purchases of American products and services by at least $200 billion over the next two years. Trump called it “a transformative deal” It’s “good for China, for the United States and for…

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Will the looming trade deal ease China US relations? The impeachment of the US President left observers convinced that Donald Trump would be too distracted to focus on resolving tensions between the world’s two biggest economies. This article is a summary of major US China news in December 2019. Trade secretary Steven Mnuchin claimed the trade deal was completely finished, on paper and translated, was just undergoing a technical “scrub”, and would not be subject to any renegotiation before its likely signing in early January 2020. As the details have still not been disclosed, US farmers remained sceptical of Trump’s promise China would buy $50bn of US farm goods. No date has yet been set for the two sides to begin “phase two” trade talks, said Robert Lighthizer, US Trade Representative. As the FT commented, the Chinese detente is heavily dependent on the success of a tricky implementation phase over coming months — during which the Trump administration will scrutinise every economic…

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