If You Want to Cut the China Trade Gap, Invest in America
The U.S. could have tackled this imbalance years ago.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He in Beijing
Photographer: Andy Wong/AFP/Via Getty Images
One reason the U.S. and China can’t figure out how to negotiate on trade may be that the Americans are making two sets of demands that are antithetical to each other, without even realizing it.
On one side are threatened sanctions targeting the Made in China 2025 program of technology development and those against ZTE Corp. The headline tariffs, sometimes $50 billion, sometimes $150 billion, are aimed at the 2025 plan but more broadly attack a range of Chinese industrial practices, as described in an investigation by the Department of Commerce. The ZTE action focuses on that company’s sales of U.S. technology to Iran, but also is about a decades-long agenda created and funded by the Chinese government to acquire foreign technologies – an agenda in which ZTE and other state-owned technology companies have been willing partners.