With the arrival in Beijing last week of the United States’ top trade negotiators, you might think that the U.S. and China are about to enter high-level talks to avoid a trade war and that this is a story for the business pages. Think again. This is one for the history books.
Five days of meetings in Beijing with Chinese, U.S. and European government officials and business leaders made it crystal clear to me that what’s going on right now is nothing less than a struggle to redefine the rules governing the economic and power relations of the world’s oldest and newest superpowers – the United States and China. This is not a trade tiff.
“This is about a lot more than trade and tariffs. This is about the future,” said Ruan Zongze, executive vice president of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s research institute.
In one corner stand President Donald Trump and his team of China trade hard-liners, whose instinct is basically right: This is a fight worth having now, before it is too late, before China gets too big.
And in the other corner stands President Xi Jinping of China, whose instinct may also be right – this is a fight worth having now, because it is too late – China is just too big.