The conflict between the United States and China has recently resulted in a trade war between the states. More specifically, the former president of the United States imposed restrictions on some of the items imported from China, which caused an immediate response from the government of the latter state. In the context of economic interdependence, this trade war hurt both parties and has impacted other states as well. Both countries play a major role in the global economy and politics. This paper will reflect on the conflict between the United States and China from the viewpoint of economic interdependence.
Although there are several ways of defining an economic interdependence, a general approach is to view it as the economic impact that states have on one another. In quantifiable terms, it can be calculated by determining the trade and gross domestic product ratio. Evidently, states with high interdependence will be affected by any international conflicts because the trade will decrease, and the income that these countries receive from trading will be reduced as well. In the context of the United States and China conflict, the decision to ban some of Chinese imports have affected the traders in the latter state. Moreover, some of the large IT companies, such as the owner of the application TikTok, considered changing the ownership of the firm to avoid the potential restrictions and avoid losing revenue. However, the Chinese government issued tariffs on the goods imported from the United States. Eventually, the states had to reach an agreement to avoid continuing to impose restrictions on one another due to the significant losses from both sides.