China dethroned as US' top source of imports, Wang and Blinken meet in Munich, hope for AI talks: 7 reads about US-China relations

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In February, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met at the Munich Security Conference. The "candid and constructive discussion" came amid a relative thaw in bilateral ties. The talks touched on US concerns about stability in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, as well as China's perceived support of Russia in the Ukraine war, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

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Late in January, a US senator's grilling of TikTok's Singaporean boss on his nationality and links to China's Communist Party left his countrymen angry. Two weeks later, the island's top envoy in Washington suggested the line of questioning went too far and could tarnish perceptions of the US. Singapore's ambassador to the US, Lui Tuck Yew, said an interrogation like that "can sometimes possibly undermine the image and understanding of how the US is viewed in different parts of the world, not just in Asia and not necessarily only in Singapore".

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Amid a push to tighten a long-time trade rule, Chinese companies like Temu and Shein are flourishing, as parcels surpass a quarter of a trillion dollars in value annually. The century-old American trade provision known as the de minimis rule allows companies to ship packages worth under US$800 stateside without paying import duties, taxes or fees, or undergoing tedious screening procedures. US critics claim the rule has given Chinese e-commerce platforms and sellers an unfair advantage and squeezed out American retailers. "How the de minimis rule might change will be a critical issue to watch in 2024," said Sheng Lu of the University of Delaware.

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In February, China was dethroned as the United States' top source of imports after a 17-year run. In 2023, Mexico outpaced China in terms of the total value of goods shipped to the US, according to data from the US Census Bureau. Tariffs in place since Donald Trump's presidency have hit direct shipments from China hard, and geopolitical frictions have clouded relations between the world's two countries. Data showed that total US imports from China last year reached US$427.2 billion, falling by 20.3 per cent compared to 2022.

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In a rare spot of good news for US-China diplomacy, it seems that there is "hope" for US-China talks on regulating artificial intelligence, according to Xiaomeng Lu, who is involved with the countries' "Track 2" AI talks. "The common threat to the US and China these days is what AI can unleash, let's say nuclear weapons, like a nuclear missile," Lu said. "That's a very dangerous threshold." But it remains to be seen whether the countries - or their massive militaries - will see eye to eye.

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A US congressional panel monitoring China called for more restrictions on the American financial industry's ties to the country after it emerged that five VC firms had invested heavily in Chinese technology. The investments included over US$1 billion in ByteDance, TikTok's parent company and more than US$1 billion across over 150 semiconductor companies, including over US$50 million to the partially state-owned Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation.

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The US and China are picking up the pieces of their relationship in sectors like military dialogue and policing narcotics traffic, following years of tension. One overlooked aspect of the otherwise strained relationship is also easing - agricultural trade between the world's two biggest economies. US farmers are seeing sales to China picking up and hoping for more. "There's genuine interest on both sides to try to reset the relationship and, you know, hopefully improve things a little bit," Grant Kimberley, marketing director at the Iowa Soybean Association, said.

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China has spent the last two years investing heavily in Latin America, with a particular focus on major infrastructure and exploitation of natural resources. But as China's economy slows and some belt and road projects stumble on the continent, things appear to be changing. New data suggests that Chinese money is now flowing to smaller, more strategic projects, where there is less room for "very impactful error", and in line with Beijing's interests.

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This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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