A Misstep

By Lan Xinzhen

Aseries of actions recently taken by U. S. President Donald Trump prove that the United States has as a major objective the curbing of China’s development.

On March 16, Trump signed the Taiwan Travel Act that encourages visits between the United States and the island at all levels, which severely violates the one-China principle and the three joint communiqués between China and the United States.

This was followed by Trump’s signing of a memorandum on March 22 that could slap tariffs on up to $60 billion of imports from China. These moves stand out as two big stumbling blocks to China-U.S. relations.

Why is the U.S. Government scrambling to contain China? A major reason is that it can’t accept being surpassed by China. As the sole superpower in the world, the United States sees China’s rapid development as a threat to its global dominance.

The Trump administration’s distrust of China can be found in its National Security Strategy report issued on December 18, 2017, which mentioned China by name 33 times and defined China as its “competitor.” In his remarks on the report, Trump claimed that China attempted to challenge the United States’ status and was posing a threat to U.S. prosperity and security.

The trade war launched by the Trump administration is not meant to address trade imbalance between the two countries, but to stem China’s economy. China is shifting from high-speed to high-quality growth. In order to get rid of the old development pattern of high energy consumption and high pollution which hurts the environment, the Chinese Government has begun to transform and upgrade its manufacturing industries, backed by the Made in China 2025 initiative.

However, the additional U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports, based on a so-called Section 301 investigation launched in August 2017 into alleged Chinese intellectual property and technology transfer practices, target several key industries identified by the Made in China 2025 plan.

An open economic environment ensures that both Chinese and foreign enterprises are treated on an equal footing. China does not compel foreign companies to transfer their technologies, but rather emphasizes the protection of intellectual property rights and severely cracks down on infringement. The Trump administration’s action against the country’s emerging industries is proof of its intention of containing China.

Trump aims to deal a heavy blow to China, but it is the people of the United States who will suffer. During