If Donald Trump fails to reach a trade agreement with Xi Jinping by next month, triggering an additional round of tariffs and counter-tariffs between the world’s two largest economies, the US president may be inclined to blame one of his Democratic predecessors — Woodrow Wilson.
One hundred years ago this spring, Wilson signed off on the controversial first world war peace deal that awarded German colonies in China to Japan rather than returning them to Chinese authorities. This insult sparked the “May Fourth” student movement that today’s ruling Chinese Communist party reveres as a patriotic precursor to its own revolutionary triumph, the 70th anniversary of which falls in October.
These two anniversaries are casting a long shadow over China-US trade negotiations. The talks resume in Beijing this week, with Vice Premier Liu He and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer still at loggerheads over a host of “structural issues” that underpin the unique workings of the world’s second-largest economy.