A persistent theme in Republican campaigning these past few years has been the effort to portray Democrats in general, and President Joe Biden in particular, as being soft on China — in contrast to Donald Trump’s supposed toughness.

One of the major planks in the GOP case against Biden’s China policies, by the way, was that he was showing his softness by not banning TikTok. This looks ironic now, since Trump, who had favoured a ban, suddenly reversed his position, reportedly around the same time that he had a sit-down with a billionaire who donates to Republican campaigns and has a large stake in the Chinese-controlled company.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) and US President Joe Biden. China is feeling pressure from Bidenomics.Credit: AP

Even before his TikTok flip-flop, however, the reality was that while Trump talked a xenophobic line that shaded into racism — for example, trying to relabel COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus” — and imposed showy but ineffective tariffs, he never had a coherent strategy for confronting our biggest rival. Biden, on the other hand, has quietly taken a very tough line on trade, especially with China.

I’ve been pointing out for a while that Biden’s sophisticated economic nationalism is a very big deal, much more so than Trump’s protectionist thrashing. In fact, Biden’s policies are so tough on China that, while I support them, they make me a bit nervous. But in case you don’t believe what I’m saying, let me point to someone who apparently agrees with me: the Chinese government.

China just filed a complaint with the World Trade Organisation about the Inflation Reduction Act, which, despite its name, is at its core an attempt to fight climate change by subsidising the transition to a low-emission economy. Specifically, China complained about electric vehicle subsidies that it says unfairly discriminate against production using car battery components made in China.

Honestly, I didn’t see that coming. America’s new industrial policy does favour domestic production and — we’ll see — might be in violation of WTO rules. But for China, of all countries, to complain about targeted subsidies is an act of colossal chutzpah.

China spends vast sums on subsidies for favoured companies, far more so than any other major economy. And it has often engaged in blatantly discriminatory policy — for example, for several years, until 2019, non-Chinese companies were essentially prevented from supplying electric vehicle batteries to Chinese car manufacturers.

It’s also unclear what China hopes to achieve with this complaint. In 2022, the WTO ruled that US tariffs on steel and aluminum, imposed under Trump but retained under Biden, were illegitimate. The Biden administration responded by, in effect, telling the organisation to take a hike.