Bilateral trade ties run into rough weather

China and the United States have experienced a bumpy start to 2018 as skepticism about Chinese investment and trade is clouding over Washington.

The US government rejected a merger by China’s Ant Financial with US money transfer company MoneyGram International Inc over national security concerns on Tuesday.

It is not surprising that a number of Chinese companies have hit the buffers in Washington as trade tensions between the two countries are flaring.

The goodwill, that grew between China and the United States in Beijing in November, when the two signed hundreds of billions of dollars of deals, seems to be fading away as the US side is stuck in a zerosum mentality.

At the end of 2017, the US government launched a Section 301 investigation into Chinese intellectual property and technology transfer, self-initiated probes into Chinese-made aluminum products, and rejected China’s market economy status at the World Trade Organization.

The hawkish turn became ear-piercing when US President Donald Trump described China as a strategic “competitor” in his first national security strategy in December, accusing China of pursuing economic aggression designed to weaken the US.

Are there reasons for optimism in 2018? An injection of hope is urgently needed for the world’s top two economies to sail the charted course.

Cooperation is essential for China and the US to handle growing common challenges and interests. Narrow-mindedness and rigidity will lead to a zero-sum game. But both will be better off if they come together, since their common interests are greater than their differences.

China and the US are about to ride a bumpy journey in trade in 2018 if the US government goes it own way, and retaliatory measures by China could be on the table.