When Chinese President Xi Jinping visits Washington for a summit meeting with President Trump, he will have some serious leverage.
In August, Beijing announced its broadest package of trade countermeasures since last year’s truce with President Trump. The timing matters. The measures come just weeks before the high-stakes summit and signal that China is trying to gain a negotiating advantage before Xi sits down with Trump.
President Trump has long used economic-security tools to limit China’s access to U.S. markets and technology. Tariffs were the most visible part of that strategy. But export controls, enforcement of forced labor restrictions, investment limits, and national security reviews also have become central to how Washington manages competition with Beijing.
Now Beijing is starting to use the same playbook.
The next phase of U.S.-China competition will not be fought through tariffs or through battles in proxy countries such as Iran, Russia, and North Korea. China will operate on the battlefield of trade enforcement on which governments can raise costs, slow approvals, and restrict market access without breaking off negotiations with the U.S.
China’s Ministry of Commerce recently barred Chinese entities from doing business with seven American companies and organizations. It tightened export controls on drones and related technology bound for the U.S. It also restricted cooperation with U.S. compliance and certification agencies, including firms involved in mandatory factory inspections in China.
These steps followed recent U.S. restrictions on Chinese products, technology, and companies tied to enforcement of forced labor restrictions and national security concerns.
In response, China is not simply raising tariffs or issuing symbolic statements. It is targeting the system that makes U.S. rules work, including compliance firms, certification bodies, factory inspections, export approvals, and national security reviews. China is following Washington’s economic-security playbook.
Analysts have noted that Beijing is raising enforcement costs with these actions. BNP Paribas asserts that China is beginning to replicate Washington’s efforts to curb Chinese access to Western technologies.
The actions are reversible, possibly even ahead of bilateral talks. That’s where China’s leverage is.
President Trump has used trade policy as a tool of leverage. Tariffs and market-access restrictions are not side issues in his approach to China. They are central to how he negotiates.
But now, thanks to recent actions by China, Xi’s visit to Washington will take place in an environment shaped by pressure on both sides. Neither government wants uncontrolled escalation. But neither side is giving up the tools of economic competition.
For business leaders, the risk is that U.S.-China competition is moving from policy headlines into day-to-day business decisions.
That matters for any company with exposure to China, reliance on Chinese inputs, or products tied to sensitive technology. A measure that looks narrow in Washington or Beijing can quickly impact supply chains, approvals, compliance costs, and market access for individual companies in sometimes major ways.
The Trump-Xi summit will show whether Washington and Beijing can keep their competition managed and whether both sides can create enough structure to prevent every dispute from becoming a supply-chain crisis.
AI will likely be central to the talks. So will the status of trade in rare earths and agricultural products. But the larger issue is whether the two governments can agree on rules of engagement while they continue to use economic pressure.
The next phase of U.S.-China competition will not be defined only by summit headlines. It will be defined by enforcement tools, compliance systems, technology controls, and the ability of both governments to apply pressure without losing control of the relationship.
China is adopting Washington’s playbook. The question is, how will Washington respond?
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