China avoids raisin tensions despite latest US moves

It is already fighting property crisis at home; little immediate impact seen from US action

With China already becoming a top target in the US election campaign, President Xi Jinping's government is resisting any move that could backfire on the world's second-largest economy.

China's restraint was on display last week after President Joe Biden blasted Beijing as "xenophobic" and vowed to triple tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminium exports, during a campaign stop in a swing state where rust-belt jobs are on the line.

On the same day, Washington opened a probe into its rival's shipbuilding industry, causing stocks of Chinese firms in that sector to tumble.

Congress also fast-tracked efforts to force TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent ByteDance, by bundling the decision into an aid Bill that passed on April 20.

China's response to all this has been relatively muted.

In a largely symbolic measure, Beijing imposed tit-for-tat tariffs on propionic acid, an export market worth US$7 million (S$9.5 million) to America in 2023, according to Customs data.

Officials brushed off the shipping probe as being about "domestic politics", and deflected criticism of their immigration policies, asking if Mr Biden was really talking about the US.

After a meeting between Mr Xi and Mr Biden in November, "the Chinese understood that US-China relations would not be perfect, but was an improvement relative to last year", said Mr Zhu Junwei, a former researcher in the People's Liberation Army who is now director of American research at Grandview Institution, a Beijing think-tank.

"China is learning to be more practical, more pragmatic compartmentalise different areas." Chinese policymakers already battling a protracted property crisis and weak demand at home have scant incentive to escalate tensions.