The geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China is needlessly hurting their respective economies.
On Tuesday, an American reconnaissance aircraft flying over the South China Sea was aggressively engaged by a Chinese fighter jet. A few months ago, the Western press reported the "Chinese balloon" story that flew over the continental United States before being shot down by the US Air Force.
The two largest economies in the world keep dealing blows against each other, escalating tensions unseen since the end of the Cold War. The United States and China are the world’s biggest rivals, with the Asian dragon trying to overtake the NATO leader as global hegemon.
Trade and business between China and the United States reflect their cold diplomatic relationship, with clear economic damages.
US President Donald Trump’s trade war has never really ended. In fact, President Joe Biden has tightened restrictions in many technological and business sectors. For example, in 2021 Biden passed a bill forbidding US chip designers like NVIDIA from sharing industrial secrets with China-based companies.
The United States is wary of data-collection policies from Chinese companies, recently cracking down on Chinese social media TikTok.
On the other side of the Pacific, the Chinese government is just as protectionist as the American one. The more Chinese tech entrepreneurs wish to cooperate with US companies, the more the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) closes in on itself.
"We feel a lot like the filling sandwiched in the middle of a biscuit," said a Chinese entrepreneur interviewed by Reuters. The solution for many of these companies is to leave China altogether. More and more entrepreneurs are seeking citizenship or permanent residency in countries aligned with the West or even in the United States, Reuters found.
Wishes in the high sphere
But it’s not just small-scale entrepreneurs who wish for further cooperation between the United States and China.
On Tuesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk landed in Beijing aiming for the "golden goose" Chinese EV market. Tesla’s biggest factory is in Shanghai, and China is the company’s second biggest market after the US.
On Wednesday, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon said "You’re not going to fix these things if you are just sitting across the Pacific yelling at each other, so I’m hoping we have real engagement." A few years back, Dimon caused controversy by stating that JP Morgan would outlast the CCP, a statement for which he proves "regret".
But with geopolitical tensions increasing over Taiwan, as well as the Ukraine war dividing the world into two opposing blocks again, it is unlikely the US and China will return to previous levels of cooperation.
A dangerous turn of events. As the old saying goes: "If trucks don’t cross a border, cannons will".
