ExplainerHow have US-China talks failed and succeeded in recent years?

Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden have used different tactics when engaging with China on politically sensitive issues that have strained bilateral ties

Outlook remains dim on an improvement in political environment between Washington and Beijing for the foreseeable future, according to analysts

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The Biden administration aims to forge stronger trade ties with the largest economies in Asia, in part to counter China’s economic practices. Photo: AP

Published: 5:30am, 18 Nov 2021Updated: 5:56am, 18 Nov 2021

Although presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden met virtually on Tuesday for their first formal dialogue since Biden took office in January, there was little indication that their nearly four hours of talks achieved any sort of breakthrough in the areas of trade and industrial policies – thorny issues that have strained China-US relations for almost two decades.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan elaborated on this prickly point during a separate discussion hosted by the Brookings Institution in Washington on Tuesday.

Sullivan specifically referred to agreements between the United States and European Union – such as ending a 17-year dispute between Boeing and Airbus to set the terms for the civil aviation industry – and said such arrangements help provide a foundation to counter China’s economic practices.

“All of this is about working with like-minded partners to write the rules of the road for the 21st century in a way that advances our interests, reflects our values, and yes – pushes back on China’s non-market economic practices,” Sullivan said.

Also this week, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo are meeting with their counterparts in Japan, South Korea and India, but not China, as the Biden administration aims to forge stronger trade ties with the largest economies in Asia.

Ryan Hass, a senior fellow and the Michael H. Armacost chair in the foreign policy programme at Brookings, who was also a speaker at the research group’s event, framed the current state of dialogue between the US and China in the context of how wrought bilateral ties were when Biden took the reins.

“It’s worth reminding ourselves that, when Joe Biden entered office in January, the US-China relationship was effectively dysfunctional. There were no real functioning channels of communication between Washington and Beijing, and I think the dominant trait of the relationship at that time was confrontation through public condemnation in both directions,” Hass said.