Bias in journalism complicates efforts to put together firm political beliefs and follow real-world events. Various perspectives—Democrat, Republican, conservative, liberal—inform the policy stances a journalism source leans toward and color the way information is framed to lead the audience to certain attitudes and conclusions. China diplomatic relations are a subject of journalism that elicits significant coverage and the bias that comes with it.
China diplomatic relations refer to the developing diplomatic relations between the United States and China. Hostility between the two nations indicates a worsening of relations.
U.S. policy with China is recognized as globally significant, as the relationship between these two countries has been noted as one of the most important and complex bilateral relationships between any two countries. A bilateral relationship, in terms of international politics, refers to interaction and agreement between two countries in various areas like political, economic, and cultural affairs, which can significantly impact global stability.
China’s global investments have increased tremendously over time. In recent years, it has overtaken the United States as the largest trading partner in many countries. China is challenging America’s dominant influence across the globe. During his presidency, Joe Biden said, “American leadership must meet this new moment of advancing authoritarianism, including the growing ambitions of China to rival the United States. We’ll confront China’s economic abuses; counter its aggressive, coercive action; to push back on China’s attack on human rights, intellectual property, and global governance.”
Diplomatic relations with China are connected to economic and military policies. Issues such as Forced Technology Transfer (FTT), which is the practice in which foreign companies are allegedly pressured to share technology with Chinese entities to have market access or other benefits, become notable chaffing points between China and the United States. The US-China Trade War, apparent since 2018 in President Trump’s first administration, arose due to economic concerns from the U.S. in an attempt to reduce economic disparities between the countries, even escalating in Donald Trump’s second administration in 2025 with higher tariffs.
The US-China Trade War is one of the most recent developments of the shift in China diplomatic relations that can be traced back to the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The United States had aimed for a cooperative relationship, but more aggressive moves from China established a largely competitive dynamic. Some of the United States’ responses are noted to be “motivated by Bejing’s more aggressive approach to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the South China Sea; its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic; its massive military build-up; its ‘wolf warrior’ diplomacy; and greater state control over the Chinese economy.”
Other significant topics in China diplomatic strategy include the U.S. stance on One China policy and the temporary ban on TikTok. One China policy refers to the ambiguous stance the United States takes towards the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole legal government of China while simultaneously maintaining an unofficial relationship with Taiwan as a separate entity. The temporary ban on TikTok resulted from concerns about user data collection and China’s influence on the social media platform.
The Democratic Stance on China Diplomatic Relations
While Democrats are slightly less negative toward diplomatic relations with China than Republicans are due to their comparatively lower priority on national security, they still have a negative policy stance on the matter. The Democratic Party’s focus on promoting human rights clashes with China’s known human rights abuses, such as its efforts at transnational repression and the accusations of committing genocide against the Uyghur people and other minorities.
Findings from the 2022 Chicago Council survey show American views of China at record lows. Negative feelings toward China are uniform, with Democrats (36), Independents (34), and Republicans (25) on a 0-100 scale. In 2024, the Chicago Council conducted another survey in which they measured Democrats (29), Independents (27), and Republicans (20) at record lows in their views of China.
The Republican Stance on China Diplomatic Relations
Republicans’ stance on China is largely negative, viewing the country as an economic competitor and a threat to national security. In the government, the Republican Party’s preference regarding foreign policy with China is to limit its economic power by imposing tariffs and reducing trade dependence while also restricting Chinese investments, which can influence sensitive U.S. sectors.
A Pew Research Center poll in 2024 found that Republicans and those with a Republican leaning were twice as likely as Democrats and Democratic leaners to hold a “very unfavorable” view of China. Conservative Republicans, notably, were more likely than moderate and liberal Republicans to express very unfavorable views by 25 percentage points, while liberal, moderate, and conservative Democrats demonstrated no noticeable differences from each other.
Another poll conducted by the Chicago Council in 2021 explored some of the specific policy stances held by Republicans and Democrats regarding China. It found that 73% of Republicans favored restricting the exchange of scientific research with China, and 72% favored limiting the number of Chinese students studying in the U.S. In contrast, 59% of Democrats opposed restricting scientific exchange, and 66% opposed limiting Chinese students. The majority of Republicans favored increasing tariffs on Chinese imports (83%), compared to a more divided group of Democrats, with 50% opposing and 45% supporting.
Policy on China Diplomatic Relations in the United States
The American public has taken a firmly unfavorable attitude in recent years, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic, to which rumors attribute Chinese origin. The 2024 Pew poll indicated that, for the fifth year in a row, around eight out of ten Americans had negative views of China, with 43% holding a “very unfavorable opinion.”
The 2024 Chicago Council survey also noted that opinions of China were at the lowest recorded level in their polls since 1978, with majorities of Americans perceiving China as a rival that must be limited to maintain U.S. security. At the same time, Americans place avoiding a military conflict with China as one of their top goals for diplomacy with China.
One policy the United States has maintained with China for some time is the One China policy, in which the U.S. maintains the position of only officially acknowledging the PRC as the sole legitimate government of China, as held by China, rather than treating Taiwan as separately governed. However, the U.S. does partake in unofficial relations with Taiwan.
Starting in President Donald Trump’s first administration, the United States has been involved in a trade war with China, increasing tariffs and attempting to decouple from trade dependency.
A Brief History of China Diplomatic Relations Policy in the U.S.
Relations between the United States and China have traditionally been fraught, especially prior to the 1970s. An event in 1971 helped the U.S. and China establish diplomatic relations: a sports-based cultural exchange.
Deemed Ping Pong Diplomacy, the U.S. table tennis team was invited to visit China after meeting Chinese players in a tournament in Japan, triggering a thaw in diplomatic relations between the two countries. This visit was the first time Americans entered China since the communist revolution in 1949. Not long after, President Richard Nixon was also permitted to visit China for eight days in 1972.
While Ping Pong Diplomacy opened the countries for positive diplomacy, relations were not largely positive following a history of antagonism, and tensions continued over Taiwan, the balance of trade, intellectual property rights, nuclear weapons, human rights, and other issues after the official establishment of diplomatic relations in 1979. At this time, the U.S. acknowledged the One China policy, although Congress also approved the Taiwan Relations Act to permit ongoing relations with Taiwan.
In response to the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, the U.S. suspended military sales to Beijing and froze relations.
In 1999, the accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) shook relations between the U.S. and China.
President Clinton signed off on the establishment of normal trade relations with Beijing in 2000. This action opened the path for China to become a part of the World Trade Organization.
China became the United States’ second-biggest trade partner in 2006, only surpassed by Canada. It surpassed Japan as the United States’ largest creditor in 2008, and surpassed Japan as the second largest economy in the world after the U.S. in 2010.
These increases in China’s economic position, as well as the increases in China’s military budget in 2007, provoked negative sentiments and attempts from the U.S. to curb the threat associated with China’s growth in President Obama’s term, especially with the also-growing U.S. trade deficit with China looming.
President Obama engaged in positive diplomacy with China as well, such as in the 2013 summit at Sunnylands Estate in California and the joint climate announcement at the 2014 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Such instances amidst fluctuating public opinion demonstrate the nuance of relations between the United States and China.
In 2018, President Donald Trump imposed tariffs and trade barriers on China, pressing for them to adjust what were deemed to be longstanding unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft. This was the beginning of the trade war between the U.S. and China in which both sides continued changing tariffs and imposing restrictions.
China received the criticism of country leaders from the Group of Seven (G7) in their annual meeting in 2021. They were accused of mistreating the Uyghur minority, destroying democracy in Hong Kong, making military threats to Taiwan, unfair trade practices, and lack of transparency about the origins of COVID-19 by the G7 nations—the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan—after President Joe Biden pushed the nations to speak on the matter. China brushed off the criticisms even though these countries are key economic influences for them.
President Trump’s second administration has proved especially hard on China. In February of 2025, the president signed an executive order to declare a national emergency regarding drug trafficking from China into the United States. This order made it possible for President Trump to employ sweeping tariffs quickly. Since early 2025, President Trump has gone as far as to raise baseline tariffs on Chinese imports to an effective 145% before reducing them to 30% later on to conduct negotiations with China.
What the Future Holds
Longstanding and increasing tensions between the United States and China indicate the likelihood of strained diplomatic relations moving forward. The results of President Trump’s tariffs may be the measure by which future diplomacy is predicted, but persisting military activity and human rights violations from China could easily increase the pervading negativity.
The race for overwhelming dominance in artificial intelligence is another area in which China’s behavior could significantly influence actions from the United States as the U.S. proceeds with attempts to slow or block Chinese progress.
Negative relations between the U.S. and China impact global stability, so other countries are invested in the future developments of U.S. policy on China.
To explore how each political party views other key policy topics, visit Biasly’s full list of Political Party Policy Stances.
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