The United States has known for decades for decades that China has stolen its intellectual property, and even the 25% prices of Trump under its first mandate could not stop it, which prompted a more daring action this time, according to the colleague of Gatestone Institute Gordon Chang.
From the privileged commercial status to forced technology transfers, Beijing took advantage of the American good will, market access and the greed of companies to become the most powerful strategic competitor in Washington.
Towards the turn of the century, the United States abandoned its market domination on critical minerals, began to import mass Chinese goods And the export of intellectual property to access the Chinese markets – everything while the Chinese Communist Party has become the greatest American enemy.
“The Chinese were predators, and they engaged in criminal acts, the theft of American intellectual property. But history here is not China,” said Gordon Chang, expert in China and Conjugal of the Gatestone Institute. “History here is that we allowed them to get away with it. We knew what was going on. We have known it for decades, and we have never really taken effective measures to stop it.”
Here is an overview of China has manipulated American industry and political decision -makers in more favorable economic terms:
American allies align themselves for commercial transactions during the 90 -day price break
President Bill Clinton and Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji are expressed at a press conference on WTO negotiations at the White House on April 8, 1999. (Reuters)
Status of the most favored nation (MFN) and WTO membership (1990 – 2001)
Throughout the 1990s, China was aggressively pressure to normalize trade relations – and found a key ally of President Bill Clinton. In 2000, the Congress granted permanent normal trade relations in China, paving the way to its entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001.
At the time, China was already the sixth world economy, with a population exceeding a billion. It was a striking contrast compared to the decades before, when its communist system had kept the largely closed country in the world markets.
And while China was already known for human rights violations and the strong state control over its economy, it made waves of reform and cooperation – promises that helped win on the United States
The United States hoped that bringing China into the WTO would check its communist government and accelerate its transition to a market economy. By joining, China should reduce prices and undertake to protect intellectual property rights.
Clinton was not the only one to believe that trade with China would also export Western values. “No nation on earth has discovered a means of importing world goods and services while stopping foreign ideas on the border,” said his predecessor, President George HW Bush.
WTO membership in China and the status of the most favored nation opened valves to low -cost Chinese goods. Imports to the United States increased from $ 102.3 billion in 2001 to $ 426.9 billion in 2023, according to the American economic data office.
In the other direction, China imported around $ 26 billion in American products in 2001, according to Chinese customs data,, Compared to $ 147.8 billion in American exports to China in 2023, we do Import data.
In the 1990s, Congress increased the threshold of minimis for imports to $ 200 – and in 2016, it went again to $ 800. Under this rule, the goods appreciated below the threshold could enter the United States as a franchise of rights and without formal customs checks, a system intended to alleviate low value shipments but since largely exploited by Chinese electronic commerce sellers. President Donald Trump recently moved to eliminate the Chinese product threshold, closing an escape that had allowed billions of imports not taxed to flood the American market.
Trump’s pricing bet put to the test while China is choking critical mineral supplies
Retract China of critical minerals, such as those extracted in this lithium foundry. (Reuters / Staff / Photo File)
Dominance of rare landing metal as a pressure tool (2010-present)
No more recently than in the 1980s, the United States was a key player in the rare earth mineral industry, but price increases led its flagship mountain mine California Close in 2000.
China, with its inexpensive workforce, its quasi-sample environmental regulations and its government cash flows, now controls more than 80% of the rare land mineral market, which is crucial for electronics, defense systems and green energy.
In 2010, China cut Japan access to its mineral market in a diplomatic spit on a fishing trawler and territorial disputes. Although it had not had a direct impact on the United States, the move frightened Washington by proving that China was willing to strategically use its domination of the market. He has shaped commercial talks around technology and minerals – and has aroused serious concerns concerning American dependence on the Chinese mineral market which has not yet been fully treated today.
The incident reframed China in the American state of mind – not only as a trading partner, but as an increasing strategic competitor. He also aroused broader cooperation between the United States and its Indo-Pacific Allies.
Since 2023, China has established new repression on mineral exports aimed at harming in the United States, limiting access to gallium, Germanium, antimony, graphite, tungsten and more.
The administrations of Obama, Biden and Trump have all offered priority to the national exploitation of rare earths, but the process of granting expensive licenses and environmental regulations mean that domestic projects can take decades to start.
President Donald Trump, on the left, shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan. (AP)
Trump’s first trade war (2018-2019)
In March 2018, President Trump launched an extension of the trade war with China, accusing Beijing of having “snatched” the United States and stealing intellectual property. He began by imposing global prices of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum under article 232, citing national security problems.
China retaliated with $ 3 billion in American export prices such as fruit, wine and pork.
Then in April, the US trade representative listed $ 50 billion in Chinese products for prices under article 301, citing IP flight and technology transfer.
China has responded with soy, cars and planes prices, and Trump, under pressure from affected farmers, offered renters for the agricultural industry.
The trade war has intensified in a tit -for -tat, Trump hitting 25% of prices on hundreds of billions of dollars in Chinese goods – and Beijing responding in kind – until tensions were waste in 2020.
In January 2020, Trump and Xi signed a “phase one” trade agreement where China agreed to increase agricultural purchases by $ 32 billion over two years, buy more energy and manufactured products and improve IP protection and cease forced technological transfers. The United States, in turn, has agreed to suspend new prices and make some existing retreat.
China then doubled its “Made in China 2025” strategy, increasing autonomy in key sectors such as technology and agriculture. The Central Bank of Beijing intervened to amortize any economical fallout.
The demonstrators meet in support of the director general of the Houston Rockets team of the NBA, Daryl Morey, who sent a tweet supporting the pro-democracy movement, in Hong Kong, which prompted China (Reuters / Umit Bektas)
Pressure on American societies to kidnap or support Beijing positions
China has long used its leverage on the market to force American companies to comply – adding indirect pressure to American political discussions.
Chinese players have put pressure on various American companies – NikeMeta, Disney and the NBA – To Toe The Line in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the abuse of Uighurs in Xinjiang province or may lose access to the market.
In 2019, China was unleashed at The NBA After the Director General of Houston Rockets tweeted support for pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong. Beijing quickly suspended the NBA shows and cut links with the rockets.
An elder Meta-e-employee Turn Whistleblower, Sarah Wynn-Williams, alleged that CEO Mark Zuckerberg had developed and tested personalized censorship tools to offer China in the hope of having access to its closely controlled internet market. A Meta spokesperson described Wynn-Williams’ claims “divorced reality” and false.
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Technical license and IP transfer to enter markets
China has often required technological transfer or joint ventures as a price to do business in the country, by taking advantage of market access to access intellectual property.
US companies, hunger for Chinese consumers, have compared. But the requests gave China an enormous economic advantage while weakening American innovation and the competitiveness of intellectual property.
The practices were the reasons for the Trump section 301 investigations, launched for the first time in the first mandate, which led to prices.
The Chinese Flight of American IP costs between $ 225 billion and $ 600 billion a year, according to a 2018 report from the American commercial representative.
