The Trump administration may exert unprecedented strategic pressures on China against the background of continuous implementation of the pivot to the Asia-Pacific. But that is unlikely to boost the US economy for many reasons, and the Republicans’ realist diplomatic philosophy and Trump’s businessman’s pragmatism make it possible for reversals in the next US government’s aggressive China policies.

While addressing the existing problems in the manufacturing sector at home, the in-coming Trump Administration needs to enhance collaboration with China, for more Chinese investment in America in general, and in the manufacturing sector and massive infrastructure development in particular.

Strategic surprise and a cultivated image of irrationality is a classical strategy in a game of brinkmanship. One side highlights its willingness to “dance too close” to the cliff’s edge and maximize risk, leading its opposition into eventual retreat. Trumps’ discussion with Tsai Ing-wen must be seen through the prism or feigned irrationality. Trump, a studious businessman, may have considered the strategies of past presidents and found the “Madman” hypothesis compelling for his ultimate goal: to leverage Chinese adamancy over core national interests like the Taiwan issue into an agreement over trade and jobs – his existential political pledge.

In today’s world trade, the production process — from product design, raw material procurement, financing, manufacturing, final assembly, marketing and logistics — normally stretches across many countries. Many products in international trade are known as “global products”. Globalization has produced huge cost-savings on industrial and consumer goods at every level, and any effort to restrict American businesses to sourcing and production in the US will shrink the domestic economy instead of expanding it.

The U.S.-China relationship is complex and often fraught, but getting it right is possibly the most important economic and foreign policy task of any President. The pathway to a more advantageous U.S. economic relationship with China will not be easily forged, but it is vital to the American economy. As China’s President Xi Jinping told Trump recently, a cooperative U.S.-China relationship is the only pathway forward.

There is little evidence that an undervalued renminbi played a major role in driving China’s trade surpluses over the past decade. Likewise, a causal relationship between the U.S. trade deficits and China’s surplus has been assumed that is not true. Structural shifts, not an undervalued exchange rate, were the major factors driving China’s export capabilities. However, political systems need to find ways to address local interests without giving up the benefits that globalization can bring.

The combined effects of globalization and technological change caused “deindustrialization” across a wide swath of the United States. Deindustrialization is responsible for making good paying manufacturing jobs requiring low to medium skills scarce, eviscerating the middle class in certain regions, and stoking political resentment—a major issue for workers both in the U.S. and China.

The US has accused China of illegally subsidising rice, corn and wheat farmers, adding agriculture to a growing list of Washington's concerns over Chinese overproduction and distortion of global markets.

China and the United States are still hopeful that the two countries could conclude negotiations on a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) under the Obama administ

China's commerce ministry will launch an anti-monopoly probe into Comcast Corp's (CMCSA.O) planned purchase of DreamWorks Animation after receiving unspecified complaints that the U.S. media deal could hurt competition in the Chinese market.