Published on: 2026-10-08
Source: Official website of the State –
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Source: PRIME
From Containment to Confrontation: The Evolution of the U.S.-China Confrontation
Recently, many issues related to the changing global world order and the construction of a new, multipolar vision of international relations have come to the fore. In this context, one of the most complex questions is the intensification of strategic competition between China and the United States, as well as the integration of other countries into this system of competition.
Over the past two to three decades, China has gradually transformed into an economic superpower, demonstrating unusually high economic growth rates since the 1980s, which allowed it to become a key exporter of industrial goods. The United States initially pursued a policy aimed at containing China; however, in the last decade (since 2017, starting from Trump’s first term), this policy has become increasingly aggressive, based on strict trade protectionism against goods and technologies of Chinese origin.
Thus, the problems of strategic competition between the US and China have intensified precisely in the last decade, during Trump and Biden’s administrations. The US position has come down to the view that China unfairly exploited economic globalization, undermining US economic power through unfair trade practices.
The United States, having lost its influence over many countries over several decades, including as a result of a number of military failures (Afghanistan, Vietnam, Iraq), still retains significant economic and diplomatic influence in many countries and, accordingly, cannot help but fear that China will begin to dominate in these countries (by the way, this Chinese dominance in trade is already spreading to many Asian countries that used to be within the direct sphere of US interests).
China not only effectively leads the “Global South,” meaning developing countries, but also builds its trade, investments, and global value chains around them. In the context of Europe’s weakening, all countries in the world are concentrating around two new centers of economic influence — the USA and China — and this fact further intensifies their strategic competition.
Economic competition between China and the United States covers several key areas, including semiconductors, critical minerals, and artificial intelligence. It is in these directions that the parties seek to mutually counteract each other, which is expressed, in particular, in both China and the United States establishing alternative partners in regional markets.
For China, Russia in particular becomes such a partner, cooperation with which has sharply intensified over the past five years, and China’s influence on the Russian market has increased. China’s position regarding strategic competition is based on the need to strive for self-sufficiency and localization of critically important products. This approach is recorded in documents that define the country’s economic planning and industrial policy. In fact, it is about China striving to push foreign (including American) players out of its market while simultaneously increasing its influence on global markets.
The logic of geoeconomic fragmentation of the global economy in recent years has only intensified countries’ pursuit of economic and technological sovereignty, which is likely to strengthen China’s position and weaken the influence of the United States. Additionally, China is shifting its influence into the BRICS arena, where at the level of key developing countries, including Russia, China is strengthening not only its regional dominance (as is already the case in Asia), but also its global dominance. Importantly, economically, China continues to actively cooperate with both Iran and Russia — countries that are effectively in military confrontation with the West.
It is also worth mentioning the influence of BRICS, as well as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, in strengthening China’s competitive positions, as these organizations largely contribute to the development of economic and (which is also very important) political cooperation among developing countries. Furthermore, such organizations weaken the United States’ ability to project its global economic and political influence.
It is very difficult for China to compete with the US because, in addition to the US, it faces pressure from Europe, which is imposing more and more barriers on goods and technologies of Chinese origin. Moreover, China has longstanding disagreements with India, which is not yet ready to openly confront the US jointly (at least at the BRICS level). Some structural economic problems, in particular the chronic crisis in the real estate market, also complicate China’s competitive positions. However, the American economy is also facing new challenges, including those caused by growing competition from China.
It is most likely that the disengagement between the US and China will intensify in the future, and these two countries will form their own supply chains and increasingly use export controls to regulate foreign economic relations. At the same time, technological competition between the countries will be the main marker of their economic confrontation. Russia and China, apparently, will strengthen economic and technological cooperation. The US, in turn, will need, first, to find countries that can become their strategic allies, and second, to seek points and opportunities for continuing mutually beneficial cooperation with both China and Russia.
Author: Vladimir Stroev, rector of the State University of Management, Doctor of Economics, professor
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Subscribe to the Telegram channel “Our GUU” Publication date: 8.10.2026
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