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Why China might need the rest of the West more as Trump returns

China may be looking to engage the West, at least the non-US part of it, for a range of economic, political and security reasons.

Chee Meng Tan (The Jakarta Post)
The Conversation
Thu, January 23, 2025

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Why China might need the rest of the West more as Trump returns Tense meeting: United States President Donald Trump meets with China's President Xi Jinping at the start of their bilateral meeting at the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, on June 29, 2019. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

D

onald Trump has a knack for antagonizing and confusing China. During his first presidential campaign, he accused China of “raping” the United States through unfair trade practices. But later in his first term as US president, Trump also called Chinese president Xi Jinping a “good friend”.

Throughout the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump suggested he would be tough on China in a second term, and days away from becoming president nothing looks likely to change.

Trump has suggested he could raise tariffs on all Chinese goods up to 60 percent, and appointed Marco Rubio as secretary of state and Mark Waltz as national security adviser. Both are “China hawks” who believe that Washington should toughen its stance against Beijing, and view China as a national security threat to the US.

Beijing has tried preparing for a tougher US climate, which may explain why it has increased trade with Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Middle East in recent years. Therefore, China may be looking to engage the West, at least the non-US part of it, for a range of economic, political and security reasons.

The Chinese government could see Ottawa as a solution to help meet China’s energy needs, as Canada is rich in oil, coal and iron. It could even warm up to Canberra, as Australia has abundant lithium, which is crucial for making electric vehicles.

Ultimately though, China might need to maintain ties and improve its relationship with the European Union. The EU holds the distinction of being China’s second largest trading partner, and exports to the EU have soared in the past few years. This occurred as Beijing pivoted away from manufacturing the “old three”  exports, namely household appliances, furniture and clothing, to the tech-intensive “new three”, in electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and solar cells.

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Since the “new three” represent an important component in China’s economic growth, the EU, as a significant consumer of such products, represents a crucial market for China. Nonetheless, the EU is not an easy win for China.

Brussels has accused Beijing of unfairly subsidizing Chinese electric vehicle firms and has imposed tariffs of up to 45.3 percent on these goods since late October 2024. But China may have substantial room to smooth relations with the European bloc, and there are signs that this is happening. However, the recent row over China’s potential involvement with anchor dragging in the Baltic Sea to damage communication cables will not have helped matters.

Fortunately for China, the EU is not a united front. Voting patterns on tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in 2024 reveal an interesting fact: Ten nations supported them, five were against and 12 abstained.

Potentially, Beijing could sway detractors and fence-sitters in Brussels by lowering barriers to entry for EU firms coming into the Chinese market and reduce subsidies for Chinese firms competing in Europe.

China has a partnership of “no limits” with Russia, and this has proven to be a concern for the west, particularly Europe. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, NATO declared that: “The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) stated ambitions and coercive policies challenge our interests, security and values.”

Growing concerns over China’s activities in Europe and Asia may have prompted NATO to invite Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea (known as the Asia Pacific 4 or AP4), to NATO’s June 2022 summit. While European officials have dismissed a formal alliance between NATO and Asian states, there are increasingly frequent discussions and meetings between both sides.

Beijing could help alleviate western fears that China is a security threat by resolving one of Europe’s thorniest geopolitical issues: the Ukraine-Russia war, although that is looking unlikely. However, an attempt to help create a peace deal could lessen western perception of the “Chinese threat”.

China will continue to engage with the US. Aside from being the third largest trading partner with China after the ASEAN and the EU, the western superpower remains a technological, economic and military powerhouse.

Former US president John F. Kennedy once wrote: “When written in Chinese, the word "crisis” is composed of two characters – one represents danger and one represents opportunity.“ If China plays its cards right, the danger that Trump appears to represent to its economy might not be as significant as first thought. Trump, after all, is not always predictable.

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The writer is an assistant professor of business economics at University of Nottingham. The article is republished under a Creative Commons license.

 

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