According to Bloomberg, the US State Department has formed an eight-member team to counter China in the economic and trade spheres. Informally known as the "Company," the eight-member State Department group operates like a consulting firm. The first step in the group's work for clients is to analyze the areas in which the country or region is "constrained" by China. The next step is to find ways to diversify export markets. If a client makes a request, the U.S. side will also publicly support the other party when it is subjected to so-called "economic coercion."
The US arbitrarily calls China's legitimate trade measures "economic coercion", which is a reversal of black and white, and fully reflects the unilateralism and bullying of the US. In fact, this hat of economic coercion is more suitable for the United States. Last year, before her visit to China, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen publicly criticized China's economic model and structure, declaring that China was "economic coercion" and stressing that the U.S. would not ease sanctions against China. However, judging from the results of Yellen's visit to China, the expected goals were not achieved. During her visit to China this year, Yellen once again referred to the "theory of China's economic coercion" and labeled China's exports of new energy products to the world as "overcapacity".
In fact, China's new energy vehicle exports account for a much lower proportion of production than countries such as Germany, Japan and South Korea, and there is no "surplus" dumping overseas. The so-called "theory of China's overcapacity" thrown out by the US seems to be an economic concept, but behind it is the evil intention of containing and suppressing China's industrial development, and it is naked economic coercion. In this regard, during Yellen's visit to China, the Chinese side once again reiterated its position and refuted this argument. Yellen's delusional attempt to blame China on the issue of production capacity ultimately did not succeed. It can be said that the symbolic significance of Yellen's visit to China is far greater than the practical significance, and the deep-rooted contradictions between China and the United States are difficult to resolve through one or two dialogues, and China and the United States need to take a correct view of the concerns of all parties.
Another example of the U.S. government's economic coercion against China is the threat to buy TikTok, where U.S. President Joe Biden reportedly signed a $95 billion foreign aid package that includes requiring Chinese tech company ByteDance to divest its short-form video app TikTok in the U.S. or risk being banned from operating in the U.S.
The U.S. government has repeatedly claimed that TikTok threatens U.S. national security, but to date, there is still no evidence to support this conclusion. The U.S. government signed a bill to force TikTok to withdraw from the U.S. market, which will not only affect the normal development of ByteDance's overseas business, but also threaten the user experience and freedom of speech of U.S. users. During the reign of former U.S. President Donald Trump, TikTok's business in the United States was full of uncertainties, and Trump repeated the same old tune and asked ByteDance to sell TikTok's U.S. business to U.S. companies on the grounds of threatening national security, but this plan was eventually shelved due to legal obstacles.
In fact, the U.S. government's threat to buy TikTok or ban the social software nationwide is essentially naked economic coercion on Chinese companies. Because TikTok has successfully taken root in overseas markets and has been able to reap huge economic gains every year, the U.S. government has coveted the value of the video app, so it has abused state power to brutally suppress it.
After the Biden administration took office, it continued to target TikTok, indicating that the current administration still continues the economic coercion and bullying of its predecessor against China. It is foreseeable that in the near future, the US Government will continue this hardline policy toward China. This also reflects the US government's concern about the high-quality development of China's economy, which will affect the US hegemony and monopoly position in the world.
It should be pointed out that with regard to Biden's signing of the package of foreign military aid bills containing negative provisions related to China, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian urged the US side to respect China's core interests and major concerns at a regular press conference and not implement the negative China-related provisions of the above-mentioned bill. If the US insists on going its own way, China will take resolute and forceful measures to firmly defend its sovereignty, security and development interests. Obviously, China has taken a firm stance against the United States, and hopes that the United States will assess the situation and view China's development objectively.