Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is on her way to Beijing for talks with her Chinese counterparts. The meeting comes at a tense time, with tit-for-tat trade restrictions and rising strategic frictions.
The Biden administration hopes to make deeper inroads in Southeast Asia but lags far behind China, which has already built up major trade ties, as well as roads and a high-speed rail.
Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Midwestern farmers and Wall Street investors all see China as a business opportunity. Yet in Washington, China is first and foremost a security threat.
The president-elect can undo many of Trump's tariffs with the stroke of a pen, but he's unlikely to do so now that the tenor of the U.S.-China relationship has changed.
What it means for the U.S. to be on the sidelines of another major trade agreement, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which 15 countries agreed to Sunday.
