Daily Times

The re-election campaign of President Donald Trump is moving forward but he may not have many promises to make. Ever since he assumed power in 2016, Trump has engaged in a verbal spat with many countries. The People’s Republic of China is one such opponent Trump has engaged repeatedly. China has been pursuing its objectives to become an economic superpower. This can also be seen through Vision 2025 as explained by China’s President Xi Jinping. According to this plan, China will expand in the sectors of technology, artificial intelligence, and robotics. It will make China stand alongside with its Western opponents, the US in particular. The sanctions of the US against Huawei are a major step that is more of a signal from Washington to Beijing. It shows that the US is monitoring all the moves China is making in the technology sector.

Trump’s skirmishes against China reflects how he fights with his opponents. He has a habit – that he has shown time and again – of focusing on one quality of his opponent and then exploiting it. One remembers how he attacked Hilary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign. The verbal assaults kept going on. During the second presidential debate between Trump and Clinton in October 2016, Trump said, “If I win I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation – there has never been so many lies and so much deception.”

After Trump became the president, he used Islamophobic rhetoric against the Muslims of the US and the world. Trump also focused on the blue-collar white voters. He also verbally assaulted the Latino and Hispanic communities and vowed to build a wall to keep them out of the US borders. These are some examples of his Trump increased his popularity by denouncing his opponents. Trump or his administration will not be able to reduce China’s growth potential. China has emerged as a force to reckon with over the last few years.

Recently, in a press conference, President Donald Trump said that he was looking into whether Chinese technology giant Alibaba should be banned in the United States. Taking such a drastic step will have major technological and economic implications not only on the US-China relations but also on the e-commerce businesses between the two countries. Trump has been exerting pressure on Chinese-owned companies; the most recent focus has been on banning TikTok and WeChat from the United States. Ever since he became the President, Trump has been trying to change the US-China trade tires.

Reports are coming that the US and China have resumed their trade talks. These talks were previously held in January. According to Nick Marro, a global trade expert at the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), “Both sides will be doing a temperature check to see where things stand since January, and indeed they have a lot to talk about. At the very least, we expect policymakers in Beijing to now be questioning their commitment to a trade deal that has done little to protect Chinese companies from US pressure.”

Trump accusing China of intellectual property theft and undergoing unfair trading practices led to the verbal confrontation that materialized a full-fledged trade war. China has been viewing US actions to curb Beijing’s rise as a superpower

Over the recent past, the Trump administration has placed many Chinese companies on its blacklist. According to Rajiv Biswas, a chief economist at London-based consultancy IHS Markit, “The US government will take further measures to prevent US data from being stored on Cloud-based systems owned by Chinese firms as well as impacting upon the use of undersea cables connecting the US to the global internet.”

Trump accusing China of intellectual property theft and undergoing unfair trading practices led to the verbal confrontation that materialized a full-fledged trade war. China has been viewing US actions to curb Beijing’s rise as a superpower. This trade war compelled the US and China to enforce tariffs and impose additional taxes on imports.

Trump may as well use China to uplift his image ahead of the 2020 presidential elections scheduled in November this year. However, Trump’s incompetency to curb the Covid-19 could become the reason for his political demise. Trump could have made an impact by implementing friendly foreign policies with nations and pursuing a win-win situation with foreign companies. However, his policies, opinion, and decisions to make America great again could not bode well for him when the elections are held.

The writer is an independent researcher, author and columnist