When China makes America great again

Since the beginning of the election campaign, the relationship between Trump and China has been marked by rather high tones. During the US presidential election, Trump has repeatedly attacked China, for causing job losses in the US and making the US trade deficit untenable. On December 2, 2016, after the phone call between Trump, newly President-elect, and Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen, the diplomatic relations between the two countries have worsened to the point of almost questioning the One-China Policy.

However, after the first official meeting between Xi Jinping and Trump last April in Florida, relations between the United States and China marked a turning point: Trump moved from trade war threats to defining the relationship with Beijing “extraordinary", speaking of "great progress in Sino-American cooperation". To get the two Presidents closer was Washington's need to find Beijing support with the North Korean crisis, but also the economic ties that bind the two countries.

Beijing is the biggest foreign holder of US debt. US multinationals have increased their profits - and their stock exchange listing - largely thanks to the outsourcing of their production in the Middle East. Chinese investments in America are rapidly increasing, a trend facilitated by the large capital made available by the Chinese banking system to promote the New Silk Road abroad. Could be China to make America 'great again'?

In the speech made by President Xi Jinping at the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, the summit organized in Beijing to promote the Belt and Road Initiative - the Chinese New Silk Road- there is a passage that opens up interesting prospects for the development of Sino-American relations.

The Chinese President, explaining that the Belt and Road Initiative will affect the Eurasian continent, said that all nations - belonging to Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas - could become 'international partners' of the project.

The United States are not currently part of the New Silk Road and its related projects, including the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). However, the Chinese initiative, after an initial mistrust, is creating a growing interest in the US and the desire to become an active part of the project.

For this reason, a delegation led by Matt Pottinger, White House Advisor on Asian issues, was sent to the Belt and Road Initiative Forum in mid-May. At the end of the summit, Pottinger reminded the experience of US companies in infrastructure development and their willingness to participate in the program.

The multinational corporations Honeywell International and Caterpillar, which have consolidated relationships with China, begun to move in order to take advantages from the initiative, while the General Electric giant is already involved in the project. If in 2014, the orders of equipment to G.E. to be installed abroad by Chinese companies were only $ 400 million, last year, as reported by The New York Times, the orders amounted to $ 2.3 billion, to which should be added an order of $ 7 billion for natural gas turbines and other machinery, for projects related to the development of the Belt and Road Initiative.

A further linkage between the United States and China could be on the maxi infrastructure plan - which has a $ 1,000 billion budget - with which Trump won the election.

The Chinese State-owned enterprise China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation Ltd. (CRRC), the world's largest rolling stock manufacturer, since 2014 has become one of the major economic players for the subways in the US cities. After winning the contract for 404 coaches for the Boston underground, in the framework of a $ 566.6 million deal with the Boston Transportation Authority, the Chinese corporation then opened a $ 95 million plant in Springfield (Massachusetts) which, starting from 2018, will handle  the assembly of Chinese machineries.

The numbers are steadily growing. In 2016, CRRC won a contract of 400 vehicles for the Chicago Transit Authority for $ 632 million, with the possibility of an increase of 446 vehicles for a total of $ 1.31 billion; in March 2017, a contract was signed for the construction of 45 vehicles for the Pennsylvania railway system. Also Los Angeles, that will host 2028 Summer Olympics, looks at China. CRRC could be involved in the construction of 64 subway vehicles in Los Angeles, with an option for 218 vehicles.

If Trump's maxi infrastructure plan will meet a serious cross-opposition with the Congress – in the right wing, with the Republican Party's “hawks” – guardians of the rigor in public finances – and the left wing with the Democrats worried about budget rumors that would be cut off to find the necessary budget for a plan of this magnitude - crucial at this point could become the Chinese investments. According to the Rhodium Group, between 2000 and 2016, Chinese flows to the United States amounted to $ 110.1 billion, a total of 1396 transactions. The data is on a steady growth: only in the last year Chinese investments hit the record $ 46.2 billion.

Therefore it could be just the US involvement in the Belt and Road Initiative - with the huge Chinese investment in US infrastructure - to make America 'great again'. Revising the image Trump had given of China during his election campaign.