(Reuters) – The U.S. demand this week that China close its consulate in Houston is the latest in a series of disputes that have pushed the relationship between the world’s two largest economies to their lowest point in decades.
FILE PHOTO: The flags of China, the United States, and the Chinese Communist Party are displayed at a flag stand at the Yiwu Wholesale Market in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, China, May 10, 2019. REUTERS / Aly Song / File Photo
These are the main points of discussion between Beijing and Washington:
CORONAVIRUS
United States President Donald Trump accused China of lack of transparency about the coronavirus, which first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. He is regularly referred to as the “China virus”.
Trump said Chinese officials “ignored their obligations to report” to the World Health Organization about the virus, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world, and pressured the UN agency to “deceive the world”.
China says it has been transparent about the outbreak, and the WHO has denied Trump’s claims that it promoted Chinese “disinformation” about the virus. The United States plans to resign from the WHO in mid-2021 for its management of the pandemic.
COMMERCE
The Trump administration began increasing tariffs on imports from China, its largest trading partner, in 2018 as part of an ambitious plan to force Beijing to cut subsidies on state-made manufacturing and tough demands on U.S. companies in China .
After more than a year of tight tariffs that slowed global economic growth, countries signed a trade agreement in January 2020 that reverses some tariffs, but does not address core issues. Beijing has pledged to increase imports of US goods by $ 200 billion for two years.
The US Department of Commerce and State are lobbying American companies to move supply and manufacturing out of China.
SOUTH CHINA SEA
The United States has tightened its position in recent weeks in the South China Sea, where it has accused China of trying to build a “maritime empire” in potentially energy-rich waters.
Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam challenge China’s claim to approximately 90% of the sea. A July 13 statement by United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was the first time that the United States called China’s claims illegal and accused Beijing of a “campaign of harassment.”
HONG KONG
China and the United States have clashed over pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, most recently Beijing’s imposition of new security legislation in the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Trump this month signed an executive order to end preferential economic treatment for Hong Kong, allowing him to impose visa sanctions and restrictions on Chinese officials and financial institutions involved in enacting the law.
China has threatened retaliation of its own.
UIGHURS
The United States has imposed sanctions on Chinese officials, companies and institutions for human rights violations linked to China’s treatment of Uighur Muslim minorities in the country’s western Xinjiang region.
China has been widely condemned for setting up complexes in remote Xinjiang that it describes as “vocational training centers” to end extremism and give people new skills.
CHINESE JOURNALISTS AND STUDENTS
The United States began treating several of the main Chinese state media outlets as foreign embassies and reduced the number of journalists authorized to work in the U.S. offices of those Chinese media outlets to 100 from 160.
In response, China expelled a dozen US correspondents with the mainstream US media and asked four US media organizations to submit details about its operations in China.
Washington introduced new rules in May that restrict visa issuance to Chinese graduate students believed to have ties to the Chinese military.
HUAWEI
Chinese technology firm Huawei was added to the United States Department of Commerce “entity list” last year due to national security concerns, amid allegations by Washington that it violated US sanctions against Iran and may spy on it. to customers, charges that Huawei has denied. The list greatly reduced their access to vital parts and supplies, such as chips, from U.S. suppliers.
Huawei says Washington wants to thwart its growth because no American company offers the same technology at a competitive price.
The United States has been successfully lobbying countries around the world to abandon Huawei.
NORTH KOREA
China disagrees with the United States over North Korea, despite the fact that both want the country to give up its nuclear weapons. Washington has accused China of violating UN sanctions on North Korea, claims that Beijing has denied. China wants to lift some sanctions, but the United States disagrees.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Trump have met three times, but failed to advance US calls for Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons and North Korea’s demands to end sanctions.
State Department number two diplomat Stephen Biegun said Wednesday that Washington and Beijing could still work together against the development of weapons of mass destruction in North Korea despite current tensions.
Reports by Michelle Nichols, Chris Sanders, Idrees Ali, David Brunnstrom, Patricia Zengerle and Heather Timmons; Edition of Mary Milliken and Rosalba O’Brien
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