The trade war is just the start: distrust of China is bipartisan in Washington and EU environmental tariffs loom
- After years of assuming a closer relationship with China would make it more liberal, the West’s view is changing. Scepticism about Beijing is the one thing US political parties agree on, while an EU carbon tariff could hit China hard
Let’s be honest: policymakers in the West, perhaps overconfidently or perhaps naively, felt that encouraging China’s economic expansion would not only produce a wealthier nation but also one which moved closer to embracing Western democratic values.
China is certainly wealthier, but the Communist Party doesn’t seem likely to embrace Western democratic values any time soon. Consequently, Western policymakers, particularly in the United States, are having a rethink.
Western policymakers also made the political calculation that the benefits to Western consumers of access to cheaper Chinese goods outweighed any electoral downside that might occur as manufacturing jobs shifted to China. That calculation is also being rethought, and nowhere more so than in Europe.
In the US, President Donald Trump has pushed back against what he perceives to be an inequitable trade relationship with China but there’s broad cross-party backing for his position.