The Trade War Between China and US

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The Trade War between China and U.S
Recent years have seen an increase in trade wars between countries with China and the United States being among those involved. A trade war generally involves attempts by countries to impose tariffs and quota restrictions on the products of other countries in an effort to damage the trade of each other. Typically, this is the situation with the China and US trade war whereby tariffs have been placed on the various goods traded between the two countries and both of them are engaged in a war to dispute them. This paper discusses some of the leading causes of the trade war and its effects on the economies of the two countries. Generally, the major issues at the center of the war are technology control, market competition and intellectual property rights with the two nations competing and conflicting over these.
The unfair strategy of competition used by China is the major reason for the trade war between the two countries. Concerning this, a report by Mourdoukoutas notes that Chinese “corporations take advantage of America’s open markets while … keeping its own markets closed to American corporations and products,” (Mourdoukoutas). The above situation has led to unfair competition, which has adversely affected the industries in America in terms of job losses, closure of some factories and a decrease in the overall output. Apart from this, China also takes advantage of the US technology by using, exploiting or copying it to the benefit of their own corporations. The result of all these is that the United States has now been pushed into imposing trade sanctions against any products from China along with their companies. Interestingly, Beijing responded to the move by taking the same action against American products, even imposing tariffs on billions worth of goods from the United States (BBC News). A combination of all these factors has led to the trade war, hence explaining why the war is still ongoing.
China’s aspiration to move up the technological ladder and become a leader in technology has also contributed to the country’s trade war with the United States. According to Wilson, China’s main aim in the near future is to become a leader in technology and take over from the US, which has currently been at the top (Wilson). Ideally, they want to be leaders in all technologies and particularly in the areas of artificial intelligence, semiconductors, offering 5G network and technology regarding electric vehicles. Accordingly, all these aspirations are clearly outlined in its 2025 initiative of Made in China (Wilson). While China sees the technological goal as the road to acquiring self-sufficiency, the United States sees it as being a potential threat to security in the long run, thus explaining the continued rift between the two nations. To China, being high-tech would open up more markets for them in the international scene and particularly in Western countries where most of their products face restrictions. This disagreement over the technology issue has led to the US increasing its export controls that tend to restrict China from purchasing any advanced technologies from the US. Restrictions h...