How the Coronavirus Has Affected International Relations Between China and the United States

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Junior Economist

5 min readSep 13, 2020

JEC NASHVILLE — The Coronavirus has substantially altered the relationship between China and the world; but no relationship has been as highly damaged as China and the United States. As tensions rise between the two economic superpowers, the Coronavirus sealed the deal and has changed the relationship between the two countries forever.

Tense Battle for Economic Superiority

In recent years, the United States and China have been in a tight race to become the economic superpower of the world. The United States has edged out China by using its manufacturing plants as sources of a cheap labor force. Economic monopolies such as Nike and Apple have been known for their overuse of such factories and have been exporting their products out of China, importing them to the rest of the world. Nevertheless, both countries have been fighting an economic war, and China’s COVID-19 response has caused massive tariffs to be thrown both ways. Recently, President Trump slammed a US$550 billion tariff on Chinese products. In retaliation, President Xi Jinping of China countered with a US$185 billion tariff.

Not only has the United States placed orders on China because of their Coronavirus response, but they have forced orders due to other issues as well. For example, due to recent political rearrangement in Hong Kong, the US President, Donald J. Trump, has enforced an executive order on Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China. Trump’s executive order states that Hong Kong “is no longer sufficiently autonomous to justify differential treatment” due to the PRC’s new authoritarian government takeover (“The President’s Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization”, 2020).

China’s Coronavirus Propaganda: World Leaders Clash

During the beginning stages of the Coronavirus outbreak, each country took shots at each other’s response to the new virus.

China and President Xi Jinping were best known for their propaganda video mocking the United States for their lack of “consistency” when dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak. The Chinese propaganda video called “Once Upon a Virus”, called out the United States for “contradicting themselves”, and praised China for taking preemptive measures to protect their citizens from the widespread outbreak.

As China’s response to the Coronavirus Pandemic comes into question during the early stages of the outbreak, a Chinese government-funded news agency, Xinhua News, created a lego-like propaganda video that mocks the United States for “contradicting” themselves.

The United States’ President on the other hand came out with a statement explaining how he is “very disappointed with China[’s]” response (Lawder, 2020). President Trump is quoted for saying his “great relationship” with President Xi and China has deteriorated due to their response to the Coronavirus outbreak (“Trump says coronavirus changed ‘great’ relationship with China”, 2020). The Coronavirus outbreak, whose origins lie in a small city within China’s greater Hubei Province called Wuhan, was the main target for criticism around the world. Recent suspicion has led investigators to discover that “patient zero” worked at a Wuhan Science Laboratory studying bats. Trump in a recent FOX Business interview stated that “There are many things we could do” to China due to their response to the virus. Donald J. Trump declared that the United States could “cut off the whole relationship” with China, explaining it could potentially save the United States over US$500 billion (Zeballos-Roig, 2020).

But, it is not just President Trump who is disappointed with China’s COVID-19 response.

Other leaders like France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel have said that trusting that China was “transparent” (Lau, Wong, 2020) and took swift and decisive action about China’s pandemic response is “naive” (“Coronavirus: Macron questions China’s handling of outbreak”, 2020).

Americans Are Critical of China’s Response

And even Americans themselves have been outspoken about their disappointment in China’s response.

A study by the Pew Research Center discovered that the majority of Americans agree with their President’s statements over China’s response to COVID-19. The study found that 64% of Americans say that China did a bad job dealing with the outbreak and 84% of Americans agree that China’s initial handling of the outbreak in Wuhan is “a great deal to blame for the global spread of the virus” (Silver et. al. 2020).

Americans’ credence in China’s president to make wise choices in international affairs is also decaying. Pew Research Center has discovered that in recent months, 77% of Americans have little to no faith in the CCP’s President. In recent years, the Chinese Communist Party has been considered a serious competitor of the United States by over 57% of US citizens; over ¼ label China as an enemy of the United States.

Without a doubt, both countries’ economies are struggling. The Coronavirus lockdowns have put the countries in economic recessions, and conflicts between the two military and political worlds are not helping either. The future between the battling countries comes into question; What is next for the two economic superpowers? Will the Coronavirus cause countries to look inward (even post-pandemic) for economic growth? Or will history prevail and all will return to normalcy?

Sources:

Photos

‘Once Upon a Virus’: China mocks U.S. coronavirus response in Lego-like animation

China has published a short animation titled “Once Upon a Virus” mocking the U.S. response to the new coronavirus using…

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