The US-China Conflict

AUG 8 2022·Updated JUL 15 2025

Context

Above: Image credit: AI-generated via Lovart

The Facts

Origins: After centuries as the world's largest economy, China fell behind in industrialization and lost wars, territory and concessions to Western and Japanese colonial powers starting in the 1800s, the so-called "century of humiliation." The United States supported China against Japan in WW2, but when the 1949 Chinese communist revolution made the U.S.-backed government flee to Taiwan, the United States recognized it rather than the newly formed People's Republic of China (PRC) as the legitimate government of the Chinese state.
Council on Foreign Relations
Diplomacy: After the Sino-Soviet split, Nixon visited China in 1972, starting a U.S.-PRC detente. By 1979, diplomatic relations were normalized and Washington let Beijing rather than Taiwan represent China at the UN. The US supported China's 2001 admission to the World Trade Organization, but during the Obama administration, the US pivoted toward the Asia-Pacific region to counter China's growing clout. The Trump administration launched genocide accusations as well as tariffs on Chinese goods. Both have been maintained by the Biden administration, which deepened ties with Australia, India, and Japan, forming "the Quad" to curb China's rise.
Council on Foreign Relations
Economic Competition: The United States overtook China as the world's largest economy around 1890, but now arguably risks losing this lead and its supremacy on the global stage. The global rivalry between the United States and China and their divergent political and economic systems is often compared to the U.S.-Soviet Cold War, but deep economic ties make the U.S.-PRC rivalry more complex. In April 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump announced significant tariffs on Chinese products as part of a wider trade policy. The United States has imposed 145% tariffs on Chinese goods, with some technology exceptions, while China responded with 125% tariffs on U.S. goods.
nytimes
Foxnews
Politico
Technology: One of the main areas of competition is the technological realm, as the PRC endeavors to supplant the United States as the global leader in tech. The United States has been working to decouple its supply chains from China, accusing Beijing of espionage and intellectual property theft, and imposing sanctions on leading Chinese tech companies such as Huawei, as well as limiting the sale of semiconductors to China. In response, China has reaffirmed its ambitions to achieve self-sufficiency in tech.
South China Morning Post
Human Rights: The United States has long accused the PRC of committing human rights abuses. Beijing has dismissed this as propaganda and leveled the same criticism against the United States. While Washington shines a light on the alleged persecution of ethnic minorities, including denouncing what it calls a genocide against Muslim Uyghurs, Beijing argues that COVID figures, gun violence, poverty, and corruption show the indifference of the US establishment toward its people's well-being.
Newsweek
Taiwan: Although Nixon's 1972 visit produced a joint U.S.-China communiqué stating that "Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China," differing interpretations of this "one-China policy" have made Taiwan a major flashpoint. Although the Island has been self-ruled since 1949 and democratic since 1996, the PRC insists that it belongs to China and should eventually be reunified. In contrast, the United States supports Taiwan's right to self-defense and has a policy of strategic ambiguity as to whether it would defend Taiwan militarily against a Chinese invasion. Tensions are regularly inflamed by Chinese naval drills and military flights near Taiwan, as well as by U.S. "freedom of navigation" exercises, arms sales, and visits by high-profile politicians.
Bloomberg.com

Sources Split

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The Spin

Anti-China narrative

The Chinese communist party has crushed Hong Kong's democracy, created Orwellian surveillance systems, and perpetrated human rights abuses including Uyghur genocide. The PRC is a security threat to every democratic, freedom-loving country: it seeks to dominate the world through military aggression, economic and technological espionage, and corruption of foreign politicians to spread its dystopian authoritarian model across the globe. The United States must counter these threats and contain China.

The Wall Street Journal

Pro-China narrative

The United States is trying to harm China's economy, discredit it, and draw it into regional conflicts. U.S. talk of democracy and human rights are mere excuses for this since it supports many non-democratic governments. The real reason is that Washington fears losing its hegemony and wants to distract from domestic problems by scapegoating China. Chinese weakness let Western colonialists humiliate it in the 1800s, and China won't make that mistake again.

Global Times

Cynical narrative

All this talk about defeating China is irrelevant, as a conflict wouldn't benefit either side. In fact, U.S. policies to counter the PRC increasingly expose the fact that the American political establishment is seeking to follow the Chinese model, not promote U.S. values.

Reason.com