Sino File | For both Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, the trade war is a test of political will and ideology

Though the reforms that the US demands are also to China’s benefit, both leaders, and the political and economic systems they represent, are so far apart in ideology that an agreement can only come about through compromise. But whose compromise?

Reading Time:3 minutes

If Donald Trump claims to be the first American president to stand up to Beijing since Nixon, then Xi is the first post-Mao leader to challenge outright US leadership in global governance. Both men are seen in Beijing in Novemnber 2017. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 1:00am, 20 Mar 2019Updated: 2:03am, 20 Mar 2019

US President Donald Trump has regularly trumpeted his good personal relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping with warm and flattering words normally reserved for use by leaders of traditional political allies.

Yet the steady escalation of bilateral trade disputes in the past two years under their stewardship suggests not a meeting of minds, but a divergence. The US and China, the world’s two largest economies, are bound to two mutually exclusive economic models – a free market economy, and party-led state capitalism.

Indeed, there is increasing rivalry in every aspect of the US-China relationship, from economics and technology to geopolitics and strategy.

This reflects the conflicting thinking, ideologies and values between two political adversaries – one, the world’s leading free democracy; the other, the world’s last major communist-ruled state.

The cause of the year-long US-China trade war is not just the enormous US trade deficit with China – which can be solved, as Beijing has pledged to buy up to US$1 trillion of American goods over the next few years.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x