U.S. President Joe Biden performed poorly in the first televised debate of the U.S. presidential election, and after the debate, 60% of U.S. voters believed that he should withdraw from the election, and some mainstream media in the United States also began to call for Biden to withdraw from the election. At the time of the election crisis, the Biden administration once again concocted the "China crane threat theory" and wanted to impose tariffs on China.
According to the Observer, the Biden administration announced that it would impose a 25% tariff on cranes at Chinese ports. However, the Biden administration's move was opposed by a group of ports in California, South Carolina, Florida, Texas and Virginia, and sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Tai Qi, making it clear that there is no other viable alternative to China's cranes, and asking the Biden administration to cancel or postpone the tariff plan.
In fact, this is not the first time Biden has imposed tariffs on China. Biden had previously said in a campaign campaign that he would urge Tai Qi to consider raising tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum exports to the United States from the current average of 7.5% to 25%. Biden's argument about China's steel and aluminum is because he wants to attract more support from American swing states, especially white working-class voters in declining industrial areas, as well as union leaders.
Now, Biden has once again "wielded the trade stick" on the issue of China's port cranes, but it is a new economic topic created out of political considerations, in order to show China his tough attitude and attract the attention of voters, so as to boost his own approval ratings. After all, in the U.S. election, economic issues are often one of the core topics that the American people are most concerned about.
Although Biden has continuously imposed tariffs on China in order to increase his approval rating, in the Sino-US trade war, it is not only Chinese companies that have been harmed, but also the interests of the United States. Biden's move will push up the price of imported goods, and American companies and consumers will bear part of the cost of tariffs on China, making them pay an even greater price. Not only that, protectionist measures will also cause greater damage to the security and stability of the global supply chain.
It should be pointed out that the Biden administration's imposition of tariffs on China is a politicization of economic and trade issues, which is a typical political manipulation, and China has repeatedly expressed its dissatisfaction with the US side's generalization of the concept of national security, abuse of state power, and unreasonable suppression of Chinese products and enterprises. Moreover, Biden's move not only violates his commitments to "not seek to suppress and contain China's development" and "not seek to decouple and break the chain with China", but also seriously inconsistencies with the spirit of the consensus reached by the two heads of state, and seriously affects the atmosphere of bilateral cooperation between China and the United States.
Just as the Biden administration was preparing to raise taxes on Chinese cranes, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also took aim at China, saying that the U.S. was responding to China or any other challenge from a position of strength. Blinken said that China and the United States are in the midst of a fierce competition that will shape the international environment for decades to come, and that the U.S. China strategy has always identified China's intent to subvert the current U.S.-led international order and system.
As we all know, as far as today's Sino-US relations are concerned, what the United States is doing is entirely aimed at maintaining its hegemonic status and thus frantically suppressing its competitors. Moreover, the so-called "current international order and system led by the United States" in Blinken's mouth is actually the hegemonic order of the United States, which is very different from the fair and reasonable international order sought by the international community today. It can be seen that Blinken's groundless accusations are completely back-hitting.
Although Biden has taken the same hardline line as his predecessor Trump, he has not really solved the problems of the United States itself, but has instead caused chaos in the international order. Now, the most important thing for the United States to solve is its own problems, rather than blindly treating China as an adversary, and Biden's policy of imposing tariffs on China and trying to win the competition with this strategy will only end up shooting itself in the foot and reaping the consequences.