The United States and China: A Changing Relationship

Background
In the history of globe & nations, there has been only a few nations that had very intense, complex & ever-changing relationship among themselves. In the contemporary era such a relationship exists between United States & China. The time when this bilateral relationship between USA & China came into effect, that time the world order was very different & singular because USA was the most robust & enormous economy and other nations or economies used to revolve around it, just like it’s puppets. But as the time never remains same, so it happened with China becoming the 2nd largest economy leading to the change in equation with USA. This article narrates how USA-China diplomatic relation has evolved & it’s including facets.

From Inception to Tension
In order to trace the inception of USA-China diplomatic ties, the visit of USA President Richard Nixon’s to China in 1972 which had brought new flavour in diplomacy between the nations, is to be streamlined. This short visit had a long impact in terms of nourishing trade, investment & cooperation between them. Moreover, this visit led to a high surge in the exchange of business & money along with bringing a blend of normalization & liberalization between USA-China till mid 2000’s. Even USA backed China’s membership to WTO in 2001.

But as China after 2008 started rising & became affluent, the relationship between the two became sour & fragile, and ended up becoming a challenger to each other.

Time of Conflict
The dissent between USA-China was born just after 2008, but the Former US President Barack Obama still walked over a fine line in managing the bilateral ties. The time of conflict began when Mr. Donald Trump arrived as US President, Trump being an assertive & pragmatic leader figured out China as a threat to USA economy & national security, leading to the imposition of export ban, heavy tariff, etc., Trump even accused China being a nation involved in stealing various patents & copyrights reserved to USA only.

The actual tension between USA-China fired up due to dissent in South China Sea & the struggle for independence in Hong Kong. Donald Trump had perceived such dissents very personal to USA & it’s prestige, that’s why entities like TikTok, Huawei, etc. were banned in USA.

Domains of Cooperation: Exist but Volatile
There are several arenas like foreign trade, currency rivalry & national security between US-China that ingest strain between the bilateral ties over the last decade especially. But after a lot of ruckus, there is still a sense of cooperation between the two on matters like global climate change & specifically on the Covid 19.

Even being a business rival to each other, USA exports a lot from China & is completely dependent on Chinese goods because of high manufacturing & labour costs in toys, electric appliances & industrial goods. On the contrary to it, many USA firms are still located in China in automobile & technology sector providing a decent number of job opportunities.

Turning Tactics and Realities
Irrespective of military tensions & business war, both USA-China in a hidden sense understand the importance of each other for business, jobs, technology, foreign trade, etc. But there is still a threat both USA-China feel from each other, that’s why Joe Biden termed USA-China relations moving from de-coupling to de-risking. USA stays on alert due to expansionist geopolitics China plays, such as placing it’s influence in BRICS and via Road & Belt Initiative. Moreover, China usually tries to be a saviour for poor & frugal-class nations like Africa & Pakistan by aiding them financial, with an aim to move them away from USA.

Conclusion
USA being a tall & most affluent nation over the decades, has it’s own vibration & influence over the world, even in Russia-Ukraine combat along with Israel-Palestine war, USA had a strong grip over global politics. Any nation achieves global dominance with the help of wealth & in the changing world order, the concentration of wealth is moving from Western nations to the Asian giants like China & India.

And such Asian nations have both money & military that can take the world along in a complete manner.