BEIJING (Reuters) - Trade frictions between the United States and China may not ease in the near term even if Joe Biden becomes president of the United States, former Chinese finance minister Lou Jiwei said on Friday.

Trump’s bilateralism and rejection of the WTO has undermined the entire international trading system and inflicted great harm on US firms and households.

NEW YORK – The recent sharp depreciation of the US dollar has led to concerns that it may lose its role as the main global reserve currency. After all, in addition to the US Federal Reserve’s aggressive monetary easing—which threatens to debase the world’s key fiat currency even further—gold prices and inflation expectations have also been rising.

Notions of liberal democracy and communism-socialism have long divided mankind into opposing ideological-social, political-economic governance models and world views. Both came together to defeat the menace of political populism, economic-tribal-territorial nationalism gripping Europe around the last world wars. But the power of ideas was so strong that the division re-emerged as the Cold War soon after World War II ended. Even as Europe, the old epicenter, struggles to evolve out of the dictates of outdated ideas, elsewhere division is now resurfacing with renewed vigor as US-China tussle.

BEIJING, July 15: China said on Wednesday it was not afraid of any sanctions the United States might impose over the situation in the South China Sea, and accused Washington of stirring up trouble and destabilising the region.

NEW HAVEN – It didn’t have to end this way, but the die is now cast. After 48 years of painstaking progress, a major rupture of the US-China relationship is at hand. This is a tragic outcome for both sides – and for the world. From an unnecessary trade war to an increasingly desperate coronavirus war, two angry countries are trapped in a blame game with no easy way out.

America has lived through many pandemics most of which have had economic and political ramifications. The current COVID- 19 pandemic has had additional psychological dimensions to it. It has evolved to be extremely devastating for America. The public health crisis has surpassed the worst nightmares experienced in recent history since World War II.

WASHINGTON, DC – The global economy was ripe for a recession even before the coronavirus pandemic struck. Many commentators have been warning that stock markets were overheated, that advanced economies were heading for a slowdown, and that US President Donald Trump’s protectionist policies had disrupted supply chains and ushered in an era of heightened uncertainty. Now, the stock market has finally crashed, and a recession has become almost inevitable.

HONG KONG – On January 15, US President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He signed a “phase one” agreement aimed at containing the two countries’ long-running bilateral trade war. But no sooner had the deal been concluded than China was confronted with an emergency in the form of the deadly coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.

WASHINGTON, DC – Following America’s disastrous 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, the subsequent international trade war, and eventually World War II, the United States went on to lead the world toward a more open multilateral trading system. In 1947, the international community adopted the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which would later become the World Trade Organization. Under this international body, trade was bound to the rule of law and the principle of non-discrimination among trading partners.

WASHINGTON, Jan 15: The U.S.-China trade war is set to enter a new, quieter phase on Wednesday as U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He sign an initial trade deal that aims to vastly increase Chinese purchases of U.S. manufactured products, agricultural goods, energy, and services.

HONG KONG – In recent years, fears of a new cold war between the United States and China have been proliferating. But the tensions between the two powers would be better described as a “cool war,” characterized not by old-fashioned spheres of interest, proxy wars, and the threat of “mutually assured destruction,” but by an unprecedented combination of wide-ranging competition and deep interconnection.

The demand that China eliminate its bilateral trade surplus with the US is misguided. There is no reason why merchandise trade balances should matter at all

Since the time of George Bush Jr, the concept of ‘Global Policeman’ for mending international order has received more negative than positive response for its vested interest in others’ affairs. Iraq, Syria, Iran, North Korea, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Ukraine and Palestine are the examples.  Barak Obama’s  ‘Pivot to Asia’ has been rephrased as “Indo Pacific Strategy” (IPS), essentially to forge military  “collaboration”  through which they intend to penetrate through East Asia, South East Asia and South Asia and beyond  to contain China.

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WASHINGTON, Nov 2: U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday suggested he could sign a long-awaited trade agreement with China in the farm state of Iowa, which has been hard hit by tariffs in a nearly 16-month trade war between the world’s largest economies.

GENEVA, Oct 21: China is seeking $2.4 billion (£1.9 billion) in retaliatory sanctions against the United States for non-compliance with a WTO ruling in a tariffs case dating to the Obama era, a document published on Monday showed.

President Donald Trump slapped tariffs on Chinese imports in 2018 in a bid to cut the U.S. trade deficit.

WASHINGTON, Oct 9: President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping have plenty of reasons to call off their trade war. Both face weakening economies that would likely further deteriorate if their conflict escalates.

WASHINGTON, Sept 1: The United States and China went ahead with their latest tariff increases on each other’s goods Sunday, potentially raising prices Americans pay for some clothes, shoes, sporting goods and other consumer items in advance of the holiday shopping season.

How the U.S.-China Trade War Escalated

BIARRITZ, Aug 26: President Donald Trump said on Monday he believed China wanted to make a trade deal after contacting U.S. trade officials overnight to say it wanted to return to the negotiating table.

WASHINGTON/BEIJING, Aug 24:  U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday lashed back at a new round of Chinese tariffs by heaping an additional 5% duty on some $550 billion in targeted Chinese goods in the latest tit-for-tat trade war escalation by the world’s two largest economies.

WASHINGTON, Aug 24: President Donald Trump angrily escalated his trade fight with China on Friday, raising retaliatory tariffs and ordering American companies to consider alternatives to doing business there.

BEIJING, Aug 23: China on Friday announced tariff hikes on $75 billion of U.S. products in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s latest planned increase, deepening a conflict over trade and technology that threatens to tip a weakening global economy into recession.

BEIJING, Aug 21: Beijing appealed to Washington on Wednesday to “meet China halfway” and end a tariff war after President Donald Trump said Americans might need to endure economic pain to achieve longer-term benefits.

The US-China Trade War: A Brief Recap

LONDON/BEIJING, Aug 15: China has severely restricted imports of gold since May, bullion industry sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters, in a move that could be aimed at curbing outflows of dollars and bolstering its yuan currency as economic growth slows.

BEIJING, August 14: China’s economy stumbled more sharply than expected in July, with industrial output growth cooling to a more than 17-year low, as the intensifying U.S. trade war took a heavier toll on businesses and consumers.

WASHINGTON, Aug 13: The Trump administration on Tuesday delayed imposing a 10% import tariff on laptops, cell phones, video game consoles and some other products made in China that had been scheduled to start next month, in an abrupt pull-back from a hardline stance on Chinese trade.

SEOUL, Aug 12: South Korea on Monday said that it has decided to remove Japan from a list of nations receiving preferential treatment in trade in what was seen as a tit-for-tat move following Tokyo’s recent decision to downgrade Seoul’s trade status amid a diplomatic row.

BEIJING, Aug 8: Chinese imports of American goods plunged in July as a tariff war with Washington intensified.

SHANGHAI, July 31: Top U.S. and Chinese trade officials met in Shanghai on Wednesday for talks in a bid to end a year-long trade war, despite low expectations for progress and combative remarks from U.S. President Donald Trump.

OSAKA, June 29: President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping agreed to a cease-fire Saturday in their nations’ yearlong trade war, averting — at least for now — an escalation feared by financial markets, businesses and farmers.

OSAKA, June 29: U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set for a high-stakes meeting in Japan on Saturday that could salvage trade talks or plunge the world’s two largest economies into a deeper trade war.

BEIJING, June 9: China is creating a system to protect its technology, according to state media, as the U.S. restricts the access of Chinese companies to American technology in a spiraling trade dispute.

FUKUOKA, June 8: One down, still others to go. President Donald Trump claimed a victory after Washington and Mexico agreed on measures to stem the flow of Central American migrants into the United States.

BENGALURU, June 6: The rupee will fall further against the U.S. dollar over the next 12 months than previously thought, hit by slowing growth momentum and an escalating global trade war that has recently threatened to engulf India, a Reuters poll found.

China is signalling that it may use rare earths exports as leverage in the trade war with the U.S., as tensions between the two powers escalate.

BEIJING, May 20: Cases of European firms forced to transfer technology in China are increasing despite Beijing saying the problem does not exist, a European business lobby said, adding that its outlook on the country’s regulatory environment is “bleak”.

China announced 25 percent tariffs on U.S. goods worth $60 billion, effective June 1st.

President Trump escalated his trade war with China, hiking tariffs to 25% from 10% on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods.

BEIJING, May 10: A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman says Beijing is hoping the Trump administration will meet China “halfway” in their dispute over trade.

WASHINGTON, March 4: The United States and China are close to reaching a major trade deal that would see both sides lower some of the tariffs imposed during an often-bitter trade war, a report said Sunday.

WASHINGTON, Feb 26 : Relief swept across world financial markets Monday after President Donald Trump pushed back a March 2 deadline in a trade dispute with China.

FLORIDA, Feb 25: US President Donald Trump said Sunday he would delay a planned tariff increase on Chinese exports after both sides hailed "substantial progress" in trade talks, raising the prospect of a summit with President Xi Jinping to seal the deal.

WASHINGTON, Feb 21: The United States and China have started to outline commitments in principle on the stickiest issues in their trade dispute, marking the most significant progress yet toward ending a seven-month trade war, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.

Implementation of Xi’s reform plan has been hampered by multiple shocks including escalating trade tensions with the US

BEIJING, Jan 14: China's global trade volume rose last year but its surplus fell again as its imports outpaced its exports, official data released Monday showed amid a bruising trade war with the United States.

HONG KONG, Jan 2: Factory activity weakened across Asia in December as the Sino-U.S. trade war and a slowdown in Chinese demand hit production in most economies, strengthening the case for a pause in interest rate hikes in the region in 2019.