China’s relations with the United States Aspects and trends from Obama to Trump

Abstract

The West, led by the United States, has dictated world rules since the World War II. However, in the following decades America has focused mainly on the containment of the Soviet Union, and was not prepared to understand the reality of the Asian continent with a correct knowledge and an in-depth study. The commercial clash that has involved Washington and Beijing in recent years has now become a real economic and technological clash, and has all the elements to become a new potential cold war. Europe is in a condition of weakness due to the inability to read the world outside the borders of its continent. Have we ever wondered what China is today? What are its goals? What does it mean and what does it imply for us to be the central part of its great project well known with the name of "One Belt One Road"? It is of fundamental importance to try to answer all these questions, to then analyze and evaluate the hard answers undertaken by President Trump, compared to the light line held by President Obama up to 3 years ago. This thesis can be considered as a "journey" in some hot spots of geopolitics, that tries to understand and explain what China is doing under the leadership of Xi Jinping, how the United States is responding, by comparing the two opposite policies of Barak Obama and Donald Trump. The analysis is also considering the cultural differences between these two Countries, which explains also their different and contrasting visions.