The United States has known for decades that China has been stealing its intellectual property, and even Trump’s 25% tariffs under its first mandate could not stop it, which caused a more bold action this time, according to the partner of the Gatestone Gordon Chang Institute.
From the favorite commercial state to forced technology transfers, Beijing took advantage of the American goodwill, access to the market and corporate greed to become the most powerful strategic competitor in Washington.
Around the change of the century, the United States renounced its market domain in critical minerals, Chinese products began to import and export intellectual property to access Chinese markets, all while the Chinese Communist Party became the largest enemy in the United States.
“The Chinese have been predators, and have been involved in criminal acts, theft of intellectual property of the United States. But the story here is not China,” said the expert in China and partner of the Gatestone Gordon Chang Institute. “The story here is that we allowed them to go out with their.
Here is a look back on Five Times China manipulated the American industry and policy formulators in more favorable economic terms:
American allies are aligned for trade agreements during the 90 -day rate pause
President Bill Clinton and Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji speak at a press conference on WTO negotiations at the White House on April 8, 1999. (Reuters)
The State of the most favored nation (MFN) and the ADHESION OF THE WTO (1990 – 2001)
Throughout the 1990s, China pressed aggressively to normalize commercial relations, and found a key ally in President Bill Clinton. By 2000, Congress gave China permanent normal commercial relations, raiding the way for entry to the World Trade Organization in 2001.
At that time, China was already the sixth largest economy in the world, with a population that exceeded one billion. It was a marked contrast of the previous decades, when its communist system had kept the country largely closed from global markets.
And although China was already known for human rights abuses and strong state control over its economy, it made vague promises of reform and cooperation, promises that helped win over the United States.
The United States hoped that bringing China to the WTO to verify its communist government and accelerate its change towards a market economy. When joining, China would have to reduce tariffs and the commitment to protect intellectual property rights.
Clinton was not just to believe that China’s trade would also export Western values. “No nation on Earth has discovered a way of importing the assets and services of the world while stopping foreign ideas on the border,” said President George Hw Bush.
The adhesion of the WTO of China and the most favored nation status opened the gates on low -cost Chinese products. Imports to the US United States Economic Data Office.
In the other direction, China imported around $ 26 billion in US assets. In 2001, according to Chinese customs data, Compared to $ 147.8 billion in US exports to China in 2023, according to the US. Import data.
In the 1990s, the Congress increased the De Minimis threshold for imports to $ 200, and in 2016, it increased again to $ 800. According to that rule, the assets valued below the threshold could enter the US tax free. President Donald Trump moved recently to eliminate the threshold of Chinese products, closing an escape that had allowed billions of imports without gas in flooding the US market.
Trump’s tariff bet was tested when China drowned critical mineral supplies
China takes energetic measures against critical minerals, such as those extracted in this lithium smelting. (Reuters/Staff/File Photo)
Rare earth metal mastery as a pressure tool (2010 – Present)
As recently as the 1980s, the United States was a key player in the mineral industry of rare land, but the price increases led their flagship mountain mine in California to close in 2000.
China, with its cheap labor, almost nonexisting environmental regulations and government cash flow, now controls more than 80% of the rare earth mineral market, which is crucial for electronics, defense systems and green energy.
In 2010, China cut Japan’s access to his mineral market in a diplomatic dispute over a fishing drag and territorial disputes. Although it did not directly impact the United States, the measure frightened Washington by demonstrating that China was willing to use its market domain strategically. He formed commercial conversations about technology and minerals, and caused serious concerns about the dependence of the United States in the China mineral market that has not yet been completely addressed even today.
The incident reformulated China in the American mentality, not only as a commercial partner, but as a strategic competitor on the rise. It also caused broader cooperation between the United States and its Indo-Pacific allies.
Since 2023, China has been instituting more repressions in mineral exports aimed at harming the United States, limiting access to Galio, Germanio, Antimony, Graphite, Tungsten and more.
The administrations of Obama, Biden and Trump have moved to prioritize the internal mining of rare earths, but the onerous license process and environmental regulations mean that national projects can take decades to take off.
President Donald Trump, on the left, shakes the Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting outside the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan. (AP)
Trump’s First Commercial War (2018-2019)
In March 2018, President Trump launched a prolonged commercial war with China, accusing Beijing to “cheat” the United States and steal intellectual property. It began imposing global 25% tariffs in steel and 10% in aluminum under section 232, citing national security concerns.
China retaliates with $ 3 billion in rates on US exports such as fruit, wine and pork.
Then, in April, the United States commercial representative raised $ 50 billion in Chinese products for rates under section 301, citing IP theft and technology transfer.
China responded with soybeans, cars and airplanes, and Trump, under the pressure of impacted farmers, offered bailouts for the agricultural industry.
The commercial war intensified in a tit -for -ot manner, with Trump slapping 25% of tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars in Chinese products, and Beijing responded in kind, until the tensions decreased by 2020.
In January 2020, Trump and XI signed a “phase one” commercial agreement where China agreed to increase agricultural purchases by $ 32 billion for two years, buy more energy and manufactured products and improve the protection of intellectual property and stop forced technological transfers. The United States, in turn, agreed to suspend new tariffs and reverse some existing ones.
Then, China doubled its strategy “made in China 2025”, increasing self -sufficiency in key sectors such as technology and agriculture. The Central Bank of Beijing intervened to cushion any economic consequence.
The protesters meet in support of the general manager of the NBA Houston Rockets team, Daryl Morey, who sent a tweet that supports the prodemocratic movement, in Hong Kong that led China to make the NBA transmissions throw (Reuters/Umit Bektas)
Pressure on US corporations for self -censors or support Beijing’s positions
China has long used its massive leverage on the market to force US companies to compliance, which adds indirect pressure to US policy discussions.
The Chinese actors have pressed several US companies, Nike, Meta, Disney and the NBA, to make the line in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the abuse of the Uigures in the province of Xinjiang or risk losing access to the market.
In 2019, China lashed out at the NBA after the general manager of the Houston Rockets tweeted support for prinemocratic protests in Hong Kong. Beijing quickly suspended NBA transmissions and ties cut with rockets completely.
A former goal employee turned into a complainant, Sarah Wynn-Williams, claimed that CEO Mark Zuckerberg developed and tested custom censorship tools to offer China in the hope of obtaining access to her well-controlled Internet market. A target spokesman has called Wynn-Williams “divorced reality” and false.
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Technological licenses and IP transfer to enter markets
China has often required technological transfer or joint companies such as the price of doing business within the country, taking advantage of market access to obtain access to intellectual property.
American companies, famine of Chinese consumers, fulfilled. But the demands gave China a huge economic benefit while weakened the innovation of the United States and the competitiveness of Pi.
The practices were the reasons for the investigations of Trump section 301, launched for the first time under the first mandate, which led to tariffs.
The Chinese robbery of American IP costs between $ 225 billion and $ 600 billion annually, according to a 2018 report by the United States commercial representative office.
