China steps up efforts to adapt as US-led ‘reshoring’ campaign seems set in stone
- The United States’ push to divert manufacturing and supply chains away from China is showing no signs of stopping, officials and analysts say
- With changing minds in Washington a tall order, policymakers are urged to increase openness and press for home-grown innovation
Despite vociferous disagreement on most other issues, politicians in both major parties appear poised to continue the United States’ campaign to redirect manufacturing out of China – a sweeping change that even in its early stages has already done much to reshape the global economy.
Robert Lighthizer, the US Trade Representative during the Donald Trump administration, has taken credit for the extensive regime of tariffs imposed during his tenure which permanently altered the bilateral trade relationship.
In No Trade Is Free, published last year as an overview of his time as a policymaker, the China hawk described the action he initiated under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 – import taxes and other restrictions the subsequent Joe Biden administration has maintained and built upon – as a “historic success”.
Despite a shared interest in reorienting the US economy away from China, the two administrations have employed different rhetoric to describe their deeds.
Re-industrialisation, once it starts, is hard to reverse because it is cost effective
While Lighthizer refers to a process of “strategic decoupling” in his book, Biden and his officials have said the US is “de-risking”. Regardless, the results have been similar: stricter controls on China accessing hi-tech components and know-how.
