U.S.-China Trade Relations and Economic Distrust

Abstract

This article explores U.S.-China trade relations and economic distrust. Generally speaking, the U.S.-China trade relationship has tilted in favor of China since the 1980s. There is long-term distrust between the United States and China on intellectual property rights, renminbi exchange rates, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), rare earth metals, and state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Given this economic distrust, the United States and China have engaged in limited cooperation and coordination on issues where their national interests are identical or partially identical, but are likely to compete with each other more than ever before on other matters. Areas of cooperation include clean energy, climate change, and China's huge holdings of U.S. treasury bonds; areas of competition include intellectual property rights, intellectual property theft, currency exchange rates, and investment access to one another's markets.