US-China Relations: Yellen and Sullivan Emphasize “De-Risking” Amid Rising Tariff Tensions. One year ago, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated in a public speech that Washington did not have the goal to disjoin from China, alerting that a “total split” of the economies would be “disastrous” for the two nations.

Anyways, after one week, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, mimicking European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, affirmed that the United States aimed to dismantle the risk rather than disjoin. Biden administration officials were committed to communicating to China that the United States intends to take action to protect economic and national security.

The harsh dualism between the two countries reemerged in the last few days when President Joe Biden strongly increased tariffs on imports of Chinese sustainable energy-powered products, including electric vehicles. From the capital of China (Beijing) accusations arrived at Biden’s office for breaking his pledge “not to seek disjoint from China,” on the other hand, economists claimed he was gratifying the blue-collar labor force fundamental for the electoral battleground states like Michigan and Pennsylvania looking forward to the national election in November.

Many started questioning whether Biden was already planning to use tariffs to look stronger than Donald Trump to the Chinese eyes. Exactly the republican equivalent was the one who launched a trade war between the US and China in 2018 and most recently promised to define a 60% levy on the totality of Chinese imports towards the US. Clete Willems, an ex-White House trade official during the Trump administration, explained the new measures and described them as “strategic decoupling.”

After a review of the statutes of the tariffs that the tycoon Donald Trump imposed on the 300 billion dollars worth of Chinese products during his trade war, Biden who in the beginning was against these tariffs, not only kept them in place but added some more on the Chinese clean energy products. Emily Benson, a trade expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, insisted on the crucial relevance of analyzing each good targeted in Biden’s new tariffs. The reduction of imports of electric vehicles, for instance, was not a matter of disjoining, knowing the little involvement of the Chinese auto sector in the US.

Increasing by twice the precedent tariff on Chinese semiconductors to 50% is going to have a limited economic impact since the United States imports very few. Anyway, targeting finished products containing chips would indicate a new move toward disjoining. What will happen in the future? The evolution of the relationship between China and the US shifts and fastens every day with contradictions and unsolved question marks. The interactions between these very different countries are very delicate since they are originally divided by culture, traditions, and mentality.