The Contentious U.S.-China Relationship, by the Numbers (2024)

FAQs

What is the relationship between the United States and China? ›

They have significant economic ties and are significantly intertwined, yet they also have a global hegemonic great power rivalry. As of 2023, China and the United States are the world's second-largest and largest economies by nominal GDP, as well as the largest and second-largest economies by GDP (PPP) respectively.

China Trade & Investment Summary

Exports were $195.5 billion; imports were $562.9 billion. The U.S. goods and services trade deficit with China was $367.4 billion in 2022. U.S. goods exports to China in 2022 were $154.0 billion, up 1.7 percent ($2.6 billion) from 2021 and up 39 percent from 2012.

China has most of what it needs now, and what it doesn't have it can easily obtain from vendors outside the U.S. While the American market looked enticing a few decades ago, it is relatively mature, and today the newer emerging market countries have become much more interesting to Beijing.

China was the source of some of the world's most sought after commodities—tea, porcelain, and silk—and Western merchants had sought access to this highly lucrative trade since at least the 17th century. Following U.S. independence, U.S.-based merchants continued to seek opportunity in China.

Pakistan has a long and strong relationship with China. The long-standing ties between the two countries have been mutually beneficial. A close identity of views and mutual interests remain the centre-point of bilateral ties.

Survey results indicate that 75% of respondents in China held negative views of the U.S. By comparison, according to a study conducted by the Eurasia Group two years earlier, only 17% of respondents in China had reported unfavorable feelings toward the U.S.

China is one of the United States's largest creditors, owning about $859.4 billion in U.S. debt.

As a result, if the United States and other countries were to stop trading with China, it would disrupt global supply chains and cause economic disruptions in many countries.

In 2023, the total value of the U.S. trade in goods with China amounted to around 575 billion U.S. dollars composed of a 147.8 billion U.S. dollars export value and a 427.2 billion U.S. dollars import value.

Not quite. There are natural resources others have that we need for our industries. Without them critical parts of our industry will fail. “Geological Survey reported that, of 88 important minerals they track, the United States is more than 25 percent import-dependent for 62 of them.

Will China still overtake US? ›

Even a 4%-5% growth rate will be difficult to sustain over the next few years. The likelihood of the prediction that China's GDP will one day overtake that of the U.S. is declining. Q: You attended this year's annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. What was the atmosphere like?

China was the United States' third-largest trade partner in 2021. In 2021, 8.6% of total U.S. exports of $1.8 trillion to the World were exported to China and 17.9%of total U.S. imports of $2.8 trillion were imported from China. Mechanical Appliances, Sound Recorders and TV sets were the most traded commodity sectors.

Americans certainly had economic power that they could flex in China, but they had not enough military might or Naval power to set up a colony there. And there wasn't political will to do that either.

Han China managed to conquer northern Korea and northern Vietnam, annexing and incorporating several parts of these territories into its empire in the process.

This is because of the treaty China signed at the end of the Opium Wars that made it give up all ruling rights. This is because only half of China was a full-fledged colony of the British. This is because the Germans, the Russians, and the Japanese also colonized China apart the English.

Establishment of Diplomatic Relations with PRC/Termination of Diplomatic Relations with the Republic of China, 1979. On January 1, 1979, the United States recognized the PRC and established diplomatic relations with it as the sole legitimate government of China.

The United States "acknowledged" the "One China" position of both sides of the Taiwan Strait. U.S. policy has not recognized the PRC's sovereignty over Taiwan; U.S. policy has not recognized Taiwan as a sovereign country; and. U.S. policy has considered Taiwan's status as unsettled.

Codependency between America and China was born in the late 1970s, when the US was in the grips of wrenching stagflation, and the Chinese economy was in shambles following the Cultural Revolution. Both countries needed new recipes for revival and growth, and turned to each other in a marriage of convenience.

For example, many U.S. companies source products from China. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, this created supply chain constraints as portions of China's economy were virtually shut down. That had a negative impact on business activity for some U.S. companies dependent on Chinese suppliers.