At the time, the Biden Administration suggested that the US may lift some tariffs on Chinese goods to fight inflation. The fact that it has now instead chosen to increase tariffs reflects how the trade relationship between China and the US has evolved in the last two years despite improvements in diplomatic dialogue, as well as the increasingly elevated position of renewables and high-end technologies as a consideration in national security. However, the MOFCOM spokesperson also stated that China “opposes individual 6 harmonic patterns to use in trading countries’ arbitrary use of drones as an excuse to impose illegal sanctions on Chinese companies and individuals”. This is likely in reference to the US, which has imposed export controls on various Chinese goods due to their purported dual military use.

The reinstatement of the tariff exemptions, therefore, suggests that the products can currently not be sourced or produced from countries other than China. The list covers a wide range of products, including industrial chemicals and machinery, auto parts, textiles, consumer electronics, and foodstuffs. According to a notice published on the website of the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) on May 3, the US may lift tariffs on some Chinese goods on the four-year anniversary of the tariffs being instated. The notice puts in motion a standard legal requirement for the USTR to review tariff actions four years after they were instated.

The Realist Case for Global Rules

In September 2008, China surpasses Japan to become the largest holder of U.S. debt—or treasuries—at around $600 billion. The growing interdependence between the U.S. and Chinese economies becomes evident as a financial crisis threatens the global economy, fueling concerns over U.S.-China economic imbalances. President Clinton signs the U.S.-China Relations Act of 2000 in October, granting Beijing permanent normal trade relations with the United States and paving the way for China to join the World Trade Organization in 2001.

• He also stated that China’s industry focuses primarily on the domestic market, with only 5 percent of goods being exported, and that it receives no export-oriented subsidies.
• The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC), a leading advisory panel on China, has recommended repealing this status.
• In a press briefing held at the close of the meetings, the secretary emphasized that the US aims to achieve “a healthy economic relationship that benefits both our countries over time” and that it does “not seek to decouple its economy from China’s”.

Trump Hosts Netanyahu at the White House to Discuss Israel-Hamas Cease-Fire Deal

Updates to the State Department’s fact sheet on Taiwan, released on May 5, 2022, committed key language on the US’ official stance on Taiwan, including that the US “acknowledges the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is a part of China” and that it “does not support Taiwan independence”. Following this, at a press briefing on May 11, the US Department of State Spokesperson stated that “our policy towards Taiwan has not changed” and “we do not support Taiwan independence”. Without this latest breakthrough, many of the companies identified were facing blanket delisting in 2024. The US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) announced on Thursday, December 15, that it has successfully gained uncensored access to investigate audit firms in mainland China and Hong Kong for the first time in history, potentially saving hundreds of Chinese companies from forced delisting from US stock exchanges. China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) has placed two US defense companies – Lockheed Martin Corporation and Raytheon Missiles & Defense, a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies – on its List of Unreliable Entities in retaliation for their supply of arms to Taiwan. According to the MOFCOM announcement, the two units were added to the list in order to “safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests”.

The State Department Overhaul Is Long Overdue

According to a White House readout, the meeting focused on implementing commitments made during the November 2023 Woodside Summit, including counter-narcotics, military-to-military communications, AI safety, cross-strait relations, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the South China Sea. The United States has imposed export controls to limit China’s access to advanced semiconductors, including restrictions in January 2025 on AI chips and model weights which were rescinded by the Trump administration in May 2025. While aimed at preserving U.S. technological leadership, some analysts, including figures such as Alvin Wang Graylin, argue these measures may unintentionally accelerate Chinese innovation by forcing efficiency improvements.

On Saturday, February 20, 2022, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke via videolink at the 58th Munich Security Conference. Wang Yi clarified that China supports the national sovereignty of all countries, including Ukraine. The report did not provide specific details on policy measures for trade with China but stated that the U.S. would renew engagement with partners and allies “to address shared challenges” with regard to China. The report strongly suggests the U.S. will continue to implement policies to increase its competitiveness with China and use its influence on the international stage to urge other countries to do the same. According to the readout on the White House website, in the meeting, President Biden “described the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia as it conducts brutal attacks against Ukrainian cities and civilians”.

July 2020 – China’s Houston consulate shut down; Pompeo blasts Xi

Reducing methane, phasing down coal, and cooperating on clean energy technology are key areas of collaboration. Similarly, the two largest oil consumers, both faced with high energy prices, agreed on energy security measures, such as joint releases from their respective strategic petroleum reserves, and increased Chinese purchases of U.S. natural gas, building on Trump’s phase one trade deal. Yet China’s predatory industrial policies, cyberhacking, economic coercion, and efforts to bend international institutions to its preferences have all exacerbated geoeconomic competition. This parallels Beijing’s revisionism and aggressive military activities in the East and South China Seas as well as its intimidation of Taiwan with hundreds of sorties of fighter planes and bombers. More recently, China threatened Indonesia to stop exploring for oil and gas in its own maritime territory based on Beijing’s false territorial claims there. China’s so-called nine-dash line claims most of the South China Sea, though a 2016 international tribunal in the Hague ruled that its claims violate the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which Beijing ratified but selectively adheres to.

• Algorithmic patterns refer to structured, rule-based learning pathways, which are essential in mathematics and coding.
• Many of these imported goods are technologies such as computers, electric batteries, and video displays.
• Blinken underscored US concerns over issues in Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Taiwan and stressed the need for a second phase investigation into the origins of COVID-19.
• Others, including senior officials responsible for export control in the Biden administration, contend that export controls remain essential for safeguarding national security, though they require better coordination and refinement.
• In this report by the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace, researchers examine the path toward U.S.-China relations coexisting in the coming decade.

In a speech on Tuesday, May 10, President Joe Biden stated that he would consider removing tariffs on Chinese goods in an effort to reduce the price of goods in the US. The statement comes a week after the US Trade Representative initiated a statutory procedure to review US tariffs on Chinese goods in the lead-up to the four-year anniversary of the tariffs being implemented. In a routine press briefing on Wednesday 11 May, Foreign Minister Zhao Lijian urged the US to remove the tariffs, stating that “I think it’s time for the US administration to reconsider and to cancel it as early as possible”.

After President Donald Trump began a so-called trade war with China in 2018, economic tensions between Washington and Beijing have been on the rise. Chinese officials have warned that there are “no winners” in a trade or tariff war, although President Joe Biden continued many of Trump’s policies. Critics have accused Biden’s China policy (not entirely unfairly) of being “Trump lite”—tariffs, decoupling, virtue-signaling, and all the rest—just with a softer tone. But like Biden’s foreign policy writ large, his China policy has been a constant tug of war between values and interests, often tilting toward pragmatism, seen in summits with Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as the deals around the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. In dealing with China, Biden signaled he was in no rush to depart from the Trump administration’s policies.

The Chinese embassy in Washington expressed “strong concern” and “firm opposition” to the joint statement, saying China will firmly safeguard its national sovereignty, security, and development interests. US President Joe Biden withdrew a series of Trump-era executive orders that sought to ban new downloads of China-owned apps WeChat and TikTok. To replace the Trump-era ban, Biden signed new orders calling for the Commerce Department to launch national security reviews of apps with links to foreign adversaries, including China. During the final days of the COP26 summit, the US and China made a joint declaration to cooperate on climate issues over the next decade. The US-China Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s says both sides will “recall their firm commitment to work together and with other parties” to achieve the 1.5C temperature goals set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement. Previously, Washington decided to classify Chinese state media organizations, including Xinhua News Agency and the China Global Television Network (CGTN), as “foreign missions”, allowing tighter control to be exercised over five Chinese outlets.

Jeff Moon, a trade official in the Obama administration who now runs the China Moon Strategies consultancy, wondered why Trump hadn’t disclosed details of the agreement two days after it had been reached. This Council report by CFR’s Manak and Helena Kopans-Johnson details the division of responsibilities between U.S. In this report by the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace, researchers examine the path toward U.S.-China relations coexisting in the coming decade.

According to the statement, “These entities supplied Russian consignees connected to the Russian defense sector with US-origin integrated circuits”. The statement says that Russia relies upon these components for precision guidance systems in the missiles and drones used in the Russia-Ukraine war. The US delegation arrived in Shanghai on Saturday, the first such visit by US lawmakers since 2019, under the previous administration. In Shanghai, the lawmakers met with the Secretary of the Shanghai Communist Party Chen Jining. The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the US Department of Commerce (DOC) has released three rules tightening export restrictions on advanced computing semiconductors, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and supercomputing items to China. Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance (AVC) Mallory Stewart and Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Director-General of Arms Control Sun Xiaobo on Monday met for discussions on nuclear arms control and non-proliferation.

According to the U.S. readout, the leaders expressed opposition to the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, while the Chinese readout does not mention nuclear weapons. Biden raises concerns about rights abuses in Xinjiang and Chinese aggression against Taiwan, emphasizing that U.S. policy toward the island has not changed. The Ministry of Commerce stated that the measures extend extraterritorial jurisdiction, interfering in trade between China and third countries, which is a typical act of economic coercion and non-market practice. The US has been inconsistent in its actions, continuously broadening the concept of national security, abusing export control measures, and engaging in unilateral bullying.

The meetings were co-chaired by officials from the US Treasury Department (the “Treasury”) and the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), China’s central bank, and attended by officials from the US Federal Reserve, the Chinese Ministry of Finance (MOF), and other government agencies. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan have met in Bangkok, Thailand for bilateral talks. The meeting sets the stage for a planned phone call between President Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden “at some point in the coming months”, per a background press briefing from the White House.