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The United States government’s economic policy towards China made a long overdue and dramatic shift six years ago. This change was largely, but not exclusively, driven by presidential action – first Trump’s and now Bidens’, with Congress playing a secondary role. That could be changing now that the new House majority has established a select committee to examine U.S.-China competition.
The Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party is a welcome development. If managed correctly it will seriously advance the priorities that many critics of the Chinese Communist Party’s policies have been raising for years. I recommend starting with those that would enhance our economic competitiveness and national security.
The stage is set to do so, because skepticism of our trade relations is deep, bipartisan, and growing. A lot has changed in the 20 years since Democratic President Bill Clinton united with the vast majority of congressional Republicans, as well as with many from his own party, to write a blank check to China for its imports, in the misguided hope it would become friendlier and more open in return.
U.S. trade policy toward the Chinese government has in fact transformed significantly since the Obama years, and Joe Biden has maintained and even strengthened most of the reorientation started by Donald Trump. The Democrat in the White House has kept most of the China-facing tariffs his Republican predecessor raised, and he’s gone farther by enacting cogent industrial policy – the CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act – that will establish a domestic manufacturing footprint so we can better compete with heavily subsidized (if not fully state-owned) Chinese competition in the crucial semiconductor and clean energy industries.
