Opinion | Once again, China and the US take their rivalry into the realms of ideology

On the surface, the ongoing trade dispute between the United States and China is all about economics and business.

In fact, a host of bilateral disputes has been simmering in the five years since China’s strongman leader Xi Jinping came to power. Under Xi, China has moved away from Deng Xiaoping’s “low-key” diplomacy and embraced a high-profile and increasingly assertive diplomatic and defence policy, in an effort to compete for global leadership. 

That was why former US president Barack Obama, in his second term, reshaped US policy with his “pivot to Asia” and the now abandoned Trans-Pacific Partnership, as two main tools to contain what America sees as China’s wild rise. 

For years since Richard Nixon’s overture, the US-China relationship has been built on the pursuit of shared interests and a belief that an engagement policy would inevitably help China evolve, as a result of its embrace of global capitalism and the consequent greater interaction with the international community. Relations were also built on the confidence that China’s rising power would be moderated by perpetual American superiority and primacy in many areas.