Even under the new administration, the US-China trade issues Trump left hanging will still put a strain to relationships as Biden intends to take a firm stand. Nonetheless, President-elect Biden is expected to handle the situation with diplomacy and reasonable bargaining as opposed to Trump’s approach of making China a rival country that must be brought down from its powerful economic position. .

Background Information about the US-China Trade Tensions

Subsequent to airing complaints about China’s one-sided commercial practices with the United States, the former president attempted to persuade Beijing through policies. In not succeeding, the government imposed tariffs on imported merchandise from China and negatively affected Huawei with penalties. Still, China was unperturbed because the greater burden of tariffs were imposed on U.S. businesses, which in the long run, rippled to the end-user American consumers.

Trump basically spent most of his term taking drastic actions against China including blacklisting Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, while Beijing countered by claiming that American technologies were mostly stolen from Chinese companies. The rift has actually blown out of proportion, which makes it very unlikely that a huge change will immediately transpire once Biden takes over as official Presidential of the U.S.

Expectations of the American Chamber of Commerce in China

According to Greg Gilligan, Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham China), the issues concerning both countries will not change even under Biden’s administration. In the statement, Gilligan describes Biden’s stand in this US-China trade tension to be fairly hawkish, explaining that domestic politics forbids surrendering the high ground to the other party. Yet unlike the last administration, it’s unlikely that the new U.S. president would send empty threats to Beijung through tweets, but would rather handie the matter with peaceful rhetoric.