Trump Administration Considering More China Export Restrictions, Sanctions Before Biden Takes Office

The Trump administration is considering imposing new export controls and sanctions against China in the coming weeks, a senior administration official said. The moves are meant to further cement Trump’s China policies under the incoming Joe Biden administration, the official said, which may find the measures difficult to reverse.

The moves being considered, first reported by Axios, include new restrictions to prevent the Chinese military from acquiring U.S. technologies and sanctions against Chinese officials responsible for human rights violations in the Xinjiang region and Hong Kong (see 2007310028, 2007090024 and 2010140058).

The restrictions could be imposed within “weeks,” the official said Nov. 16. “Unless Beijing reverses course and becomes a responsible player on the global stage, future U.S. presidents will find it politically suicidal to reverse President Trump’s historic actions,” National Security Council spokesperson John Ullyot said in a statement. Although more restrictions are expected, the administration has already begun implementing some measures, including an executive order issued by Trump last week that will block Americans from investing in Chinese firms that have ties to the Chinese military (see 2011130026).

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the two countries will “lose from confrontation,” and urged restraint. “China will continue to firmly safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests,” the spokesperson said Nov. 16, according to a transcript of a regular news conference.

Although there may be consequences, Biden should be able to rescind any of the measures being considered by the administration if they are issued through executive orders, said Michael Green, an Asia trade and policy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “I think those will be relatively easy for a Biden administration to undo,” said Green, a former NSC staff member from 2001 to 2005, speaking during a Nov. 16 webinar hosted by the German Marshall Fund. But Biden may face criticism because of strong bipartisan support for restrictions against China. “Politically,” Green said, “they’ll get attacked for doing it.”

Biden will be more successful at reversing Trump’s policy actions -- particularly trade restrictions on technology -- if he replaces them with a clear policy framework that is coordinated with U.S. allies, Green said, something Trump has not been able to achieve. “It has to be done in alignment with Europe and key Asia Pacific allies, so that we have a technology policy and a framework for doing this,” he said. “Reversing tariffs is trickier. But the executive orders on technology exports -- that's doable.”

Thomas Nides, a former deputy secretary of the State Department under the Obama administration, said he thinks Biden can secure multilateral agreement on China policies because Biden understands the importance of U.S. allies. Nides, the managing director and vice chairman at Morgan Stanley, said the U.S. should specifically pursue multilateral support for technology competition with China, particularly in the artificial intelligence and 5G sectors.

“One of the biggest gripes that I had with the Trump administration was there didn’t seem to be a framework,” Nides said during the webinar. “It was, 'today we’ll put sanctions on a particular sector and then four days later we’ll negotiate because the Chinese have bought a bunch of agricultural products in Iowa.'” Nides said that will change under Biden: “There will be a set framework in how we think about multilateralism, how we think about China, how we're going to address Chinese issues and how we’re going to engage in trade around the world.”