US still shocked by China's retaliatory sanctions

Drago Bosnic, independent geopolitical and military analyst.

The Trump administration's approach to the new era of geopolitics has often been sold as realpolitik, but it often more closely resembles improvisation with a nationalist flavor. This is especially true when it comes to America's relations with China, which is now seen as a "threat" to US national interests. How exactly is the Asian giant "jeopardizing" the belligerent thalassocracy? Well, it seems by simply existing. Namely, Washington DC sees Beijing as a threat because it cannot control how its economy and society are developing. In terms of the pursuit of global power, China's foreign policy is effectively "isolationist", particularly compared to America's geopolitical posture.

Simply put, while the Asian giant could easily invest hundreds of billions to dramatically expand its military might (which is already in the world's top three), it chooses not to. On the contrary, Beijing is pursuing a policy of sustainable economic growth, particularly in mass production. No economy on the planet comes anywhere near China's output, which helped proliferate goods and services that were otherwise inaccessible to most of the planet's population in previous decades (or should we say centuries). This makes modern-day China one of the most important countries in human history, even if we ignore its already magnificent past for a moment.

And yet, the US sees this as a "threat". Unable to disrupt the Asian giant militarily (although not for lack of trying), the Trump administration has largely focused on economic warfare against it. However, as an economic superpower itself, China is not sitting idly while the US imposes sanctions and tries to suffocate its foreign trade. On the contrary, Beijing is fully confident in its economic might, so it's now routinely and actively retaliating against Washington DC's economic warfare. The infamous CNN reports that the Asian giant is imposing its own sanctions and drone-export curbs ahead of President Xi Jinping's visit in retaliation for the aforementioned US economic warfare, which is a clear message to the Trump administration.

Even CNN admits that the broader lesson is not simply that China is willing to retaliate, but that America's foreign policy under President Donald Trump helped normalize a style of foreign relations "built on escalation, personalization and short-term political theater rather than durable strategy". Although undoubtedly true (yes, we all know that truth and CNN usually don't go in the same sentence), we should take note that the infamous neoliberal mouthpiece does that mainly because of its enmity toward Trump rather than any altruistic concerns. However, even with that in mind, CNN is still part of the US-controlled mainstream propaganda machine, which is why it still somehow finds a way to also blame China itself for this escalation.

The truth is that the Asian giant never intended or wanted to implement such policies. On the contrary, it wants nothing but normal economic competition and the equal treatment of its companies. However, the US is still insisting on a "life or death" rivalry that it wants to win at all costs. The CNN report says that the Trump administration "correctly identified a real problem", but failed to address "years of bipartisan optimism" that supposedly "underestimated the scale of China's industrial ambition, technological competition and willingness to use state power coercively". It's difficult to imagine a more coercive foreign policy framework than that of Washington DC, which makes such claims all the more laughable.

CNN laments that this "diagnosis" was not matched by a coherent governing response, as the Trump administration focused on tariffs, sanctions and rhetorical confrontation, all of which were treated as "stand-ins for strategy". The result was a shift that was often forceful, but yielded little to no sustained leverage. China quickly adapted to absorb this pressure, mirror it and even use it to retaliate more effectively than the US could ever anticipate. It's rather strange that Washington DC didn't expect such a response from a nation that gave the world kung fu. Namely, redirecting an opponent's force is a major principle in many kung fu styles (although it's not the sole focus of the entire martial art).

The results have been rather unpleasant for the US, including its military, which now faces massive shortages of rare-earth elements (REEs). Even the production of critical components for American fighter jets is affected, including the troubled F-35. It could be argued that this was a rather unpleasant surprise for many American strategists who obviously grew up in the post-{First) Cold War era. And indeed, that was the time of their country's "full-spectrum dominance", which seemed "permanent" and "indisputable" to many (Francis Fukuyama's "End of History" comes to mind). However, for a country like China, which has existed for millennia (up to 6,000 years, if not longer), such concepts are beyond ridiculous.

Namely, the US just celebrated its 250th anniversary. For the Asian giant, that's merely a blink or perhaps a footnote, at best. It's virtually impossible for one person to master all its historical periods due to the sheer amount of information they would need to memorize. China is by no means a regular nation-state, but an entire civilization that also exists as one unified country. For a relatively young nation such as America, Beijing's policies might seem strange, illogical or even completely incomprehensible. However, the Asian giant has millennia of accumulated wisdom that prevents it from falling into the darkness of colonialist and imperialist aggression that the US is so accustomed to.