onsdag 20. mars 2019

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


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.