How the World Economy has Changed with Former US President Trump and COVID-19: With Focus on US-China Relations

Abstract

The US-China trade war and the subsequent COVID-19 drastically deepened the conflict between the US and China with former President Trump’s “America First” policy. Conflicts not only escalated the imposition of additional tariffs on imports from China, but also spread to issues on China’s infringement of US intellectual property rights, unfair industrial policy, technology supremacy issues, national ­security risks, and China’s human rights infringement. And it has now further spread to China’s political system and ideological issues. In contrast, China’s policy aims to advance domestic industrial sophistication on its own. China externally has adopted a “wolf warrior” diplomacy and is trying to promote the “One Belt One Road” ­initiative under a new guise. In this way, the world economy is entering an era in which the two camps of the US and China compete based on cutting-edge strategic industries and companies, intensifying the movement toward regional economic zones. Political and ideological conflicts will intensify and continue, but in the realm of the world economy, the infrastructure towards the Afro-Eurasian economy would be built through competition between the two camps centered on the BRI.