Foreign Policy Priorities
China
This project was made possible in part by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Strategic competition with China will be one of the most consequential foreign policy challenges facing the next presidential administration. The era of engagement, which saw Washington integrate the country—now one of the world's two largest economies, alongside the United States—into global institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), has come to a close in the wake of Beijing’s growing repressiveness at home and assertiveness abroad. 

In recent years, China has more aggressively pursued maritime and territorial claims in the South and East China Seas, rapidly increased the size of its nuclear forces, and embarked on the largest peacetime military buildup in recent history. Many U.S. policymakers worry that China is preparing to invade Taiwan, which would likely cause trillions of dollars in losses to the global economy and threaten to draw Washington into direct conflict with Beijing. Taiwan is home to the production of the world’s most advanced semiconductors, which power artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies viewed as critical to maintaining a geopolitical advantage in the coming decades. Lawmakers from both major U.S. parties have pledged to support Taiwan if China seeks to take the island by force.

U.S. officials have also raised concerns over China’s ongoing repression of ethnic Uyghurs and other minorities and its dismantling of Hong Kong’s political freedoms and autonomy. They argue that Chinese companies produce much of the illicit fentanyl flowing into the United States. They also worry that Beijing seeks to dominate advanced technology and increase the world’s dependence on Chinese supply chains.

The next president will be faced with an increasingly contentious relationship with China on both trade and security issues. The Donald Trump administration levied a series of escalating tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese imports in an effort to pressure Beijing to buy more U.S. exports. The Biden-Harris administration has kept most of those tariffs while implementing new restrictions. It has imposed export controls on semiconductors, banned some types of investment into China, and supported the divestiture of social media app TikTok from its China-based owner. It has also focused on strengthening U.S. ties with allies and partners in the Asia-Pacific, including Australia, Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea.

Compare Candidates on China
Kamala Harris
Kamala Harris

Harris says the United States needs to hold China responsible for human rights violations and distortions of the global economy, but that it needs to work with the country on transnational challenges.

Donald Trump
Donald Trump

Trump has sought to confront China over what he says is a suite of economic abuses. He says aggressive action is required to protect American workers and to reduce the United States’ large bilateral trade deficit.

More on China

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After the rise of Chinese power during the 2010s and failed U.S. policies in the Indo-Pacific, the United States should renew the Pivot to Asia and place the region at the center of its grand strategy.*

China

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan discusses U.S.-China relations and the Biden administration’s policy priorities for the relationship going forward. This event is co-organized by the 21st Century China Center at UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy, as part of its annual China Forum.

Hong Kong

Beijing has tightened its grip on Hong Kong in recent years, dimming hopes that the financial center will ever become a full democracy.