The Art of the Stall: China’s Strategy for Dealing With Trump

If China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, wrote a book titled “The Art of Dealing With Trump,” it would most likely call for exploiting the American president’s greatest weaknesses to exert maximal pressure, and then using the time gained to strengthen one’s position.

That appears to be the strategy Beijing has adopted since President Trump ramped up tariffs on Chinese goods in April in a bid to get China to import more American goods and export fewer of its own. Rather than yield, China has leaned on a trump card, its control of critical minerals — which the United States depends on — while steering the focus to protracted talks instead of concrete results.

Meetings like the ones that just concluded in London and that took place last month in Geneva, analysts say, keep the United States mired in negotiations over vague procedural steps — such as, in London, setting a “framework” for future talks. That allows China to avoid addressing the thornier disputes such as Washington’s accusations that China subsidizes industries unfairly, dumps goods overseas, and limits foreign companies’ ability to do business in China.

“I think China is very comfortable with this cycle of economic skirmishing with the United States followed by episodes of diplomacy that merely return to the status quo ante,” said Jonathan Czin, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who previously worked in the Central Intelligence Agency analyzing Chinese politics.

“This cat-and-mouse game keeps the United States from making any headway toward addressing any of the underlying U.S. concerns about China’s unfair nonmarket policies,” Mr. Czin added.

China has a long history of frustrating the United States in economic dialogues that often lead nowhere. Such engagement, critics say, allows Beijing to deflect pressure from the United States while continuing to build up its economy and manufacturing prowess as it sees fit.