China-US strategic competition in depth

From Cooperation to Strategic Competition

The China-US relationship is the structuring axis of contemporary international politics, and the Guokao international section treats it as the master variable behind Belt and Road, SCO, BRICS, and periphery diplomacy. Beijing's official framing evolved across four phases. Under Hu Jintao the watchword was the 2005 Zoellick formulation that China should become a "responsible stakeholder," reciprocated by Chinese talk of a "harmonious world." Xi Jinping inaugurated a more assertive register: at the June 2013 Sunnylands summit with Barack Obama he proposed a "new type of great power relations" (新型大国关系) resting on three pillars—no conflict or confrontation, mutual respect, and win-win cooperation. Washington never formally endorsed the phrase, fearing it implied recognition of a Chinese sphere of influence.

The decisive American pivot came with the Trump administration's December 2017 National Security Strategy, which named China a "revisionist power" and a "strategic competitor," abandoning two decades of engagement orthodoxy. The 2018 National Defense Strategy elevated "great power competition" over counterterrorism as the Pentagon's organizing principle. The Biden administration's October 2022 National Security Strategy sharpened this further, calling the PRC "the only competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it."

Beijing's Counter-Framing

China rejects the "competition" label as a US imposition. At the November 2023 Woodside (San Francisco) summit on the margins of APEC, Xi told Biden that "planet Earth is big enough to accommodate both countries' successes." Beijing's preferred lexicon is "mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation," the three principles Xi articulated. China frames US policy as "containment, encirclement, and suppression" (围堵打压), accusing Washington of a Cold War mentality and bloc politics through AUKUS (September 2021), the Quad's revival (March 2021 leaders' summit), and the Chip 4 alliance.

The analytically crucial distinction the exam rewards is between decoupling and de-risking. The G7 Hiroshima communiqué of May 2023, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's March 2023 speech, recast Western policy as "de-risking, not decoupling"—targeted protection of critical supply chains rather than wholesale separation. Beijing treats both as protectionist, but the rhetorical shift signals Western recognition that full decoupling from a $18-trillion economy is unworkable. Total US-China goods trade reached roughly $575 billion in 2023 even amid tariffs, illustrating persistent interdependence beneath the rivalry.

The Three Battlefields: Trade, Technology, Taiwan

Trade. The trade war opened in 2018 when the Trump administration imposed Section 301 tariffs (under the Trade Act of 1974) on roughly $250 billion of Chinese goods, citing forced technology transfer and IP theft. China retaliated in kind. The Phase One trade deal of January 2020 committed Beijing to purchase an additional $200 billion in US goods—targets it largely failed to meet. The Biden administration retained the Trump tariffs and in May 2024 announced new levies, including a 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles, citing overcapacity in green-tech sectors.

Technology. This is the sharpest front. The October 7, 2022 export controls issued by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) under the Export Administration Regulations restricted China's access to advanced semiconductors and chipmaking equipment, deploying the Foreign Direct Product Rule extraterritorially. The CHIPS and Science Act (August 2022) appropriated $52 billion to reshore US chip manufacturing and barred recipients from expanding advanced fabrication in China for ten years. Huawei's placement on the Entity List (May 2019) and the December 2018 arrest of CFO Meng Wanzhou in Canada were earlier flashpoints. China retaliated with controls on gallium and germanium exports (effective August 2023) and graphite (December 2023), weaponizing its dominance in critical minerals processing.

Taiwan. The most dangerous fault line. US policy rests on the Taiwan Relations Act (1979), the Three Joint Communiqués (1972, 1979, 1982), and the Six Assurances (1982), wrapped in "strategic ambiguity." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei on August 2–3, 2022 triggered the largest PLA live-fire exercises around Taiwan to date and a suspension of military-to-military dialogue. China regards Taiwan as the "first red line that must not be crossed," reaffirmed in the Anti-Secession Law (March 2005), which authorizes "non-peaceful means" against secession.

Guardrails and Managed Rivalry

After the February 2023 surveillance-balloon incident froze contacts, the Woodside summit (November 2023) restored military-to-military communication and produced an agreement to curb fentanyl precursor exports and to launch a US-China dialogue on AI risk. This is the "guardrails" or "managed competition" logic—preventing rivalry from sliding into conflict. The exam-relevant takeaway: China-US relations are now structurally competitive but punctuated by tactical stabilization, not a return to engagement.

Why This Matters for the Exam

In the Guokao international section, China-US relations is the single highest-yield topic because it is the explanatory frame for nearly every other item on the syllabus—Belt and Road is read as a counterweight to US-led order, BRICS expansion and de-dollarization as hedging against American financial primacy, and SCO consolidation as Eurasian balancing. Examiners test whether you can move beyond slogans to the precise instruments and dates.

What to Retain

Memorize the doctrinal sequence: 2017 NSS ("strategic competitor"), 2018 NDS (great power competition), 2022 NSS ("only competitor"). Pair each US instrument with the Chinese countermeasure: Section 301 tariffs (2018) ↔ retaliatory tariffs; BIS chip controls (October 2022) ↔ gallium/germanium controls (2023); Entity List ↔ "unreliable entity list." Hold the Taiwan legal architecture firmly—Taiwan Relations Act 1979, Three Communiqués, Six Assurances, Anti-Secession Law 2005—and the August 2022 Pelosi crisis as the modern inflection point.

How It Is Tested

Expect short-answer questions distinguishing "decoupling" from "de-risking," and essay questions asking you to assess whether the relationship is best characterized as a "new Cold War," managed competition, or interdependence under stress. The strongest answers reject lazy Cold War analogies by citing the persistence of $575-billion bilateral trade and deep supply-chain integration, while acknowledging genuine security rivalry over Taiwan and technology. A high-scoring response demonstrates command of Beijing's own framing ("mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, win-win cooperation") alongside the American framing, showing you can argue from both capitals. PYQ patterns reward candidates who connect this dyad to multipolarity and the reform of global governance—linking, for instance, the dollar's role to BRICS local-currency settlement initiatives.