Top Democratic presidential candidates have sharply criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s handling of trade negotiations with China, accusing him of bumbling the fraught talks and sending mixed signals about Washington’s interests.
But that does not mean Beijing would find a more pliable negotiating partner in a Democratic administration.
Democratic front-runner Joe Biden frames the contest with China as primarily over who writes the rules of the global economy, a point Trump often makes in defending his trade war with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“We make up 25% of the world economy,” said Biden during the Sept. 12 debate in Houston, Texas. “If we don’t set the rules, we, in fact, are going to find ourselves with China setting the rules. And that’s why you need to organize the world to take on China, to stop the corrupt practices that are under way.”
Even fierce critics of the president, such as billionaire investor George Soros, say Trump’s approach to China represents a rare Washington consensus.
“The greatest — and perhaps only — foreign policy accomplishment of the Trump administration has been the development of a coherent and genuinely bipartisan policy toward Xi Jinping ‘s China,” Soros wrote in
On her campaign website, Harris said the U.S. should confront China’s unfair trade practices when working with allies, but not unilaterally.
“We’ve got a guy in the White House who has been erratic on trade policy. He conducts trade policy by tweet,” said Harris during the latest debate.
Sanders said Trump has relied for too long on only tariffs to influence trade relations with China.
“That is one tool that you have. What the president is doing is totally irrational, and it is destabilizing the entire world economy,” said Sanders when asked about the imposition of tariffs against Chinese goods in an