China’s De-Americanization Strategy
As the U.S. pursues “de-risking,” China is charting its own course from reliance to autonomy.
By Wang Wen
October 24, 2025 The Diplomat
China
is no longer waiting to see whether Washington will decouple. It is
moving first ‒ and fast. While U.S. strategists still debate whether
China is being isolated, Beijing has already been quietly reshaping its
economic and technological foundations.
What
began a decade ago as talk of “de-Americanization” has become a steady,
data-backed shift toward self-reliance and global diversification.
This
is not a Cold War replay or an attempt to cut ties. Instead, it
reflects a broader effort by China to redefine its path of development
and reduce exposure to U.S. pressure. The results are most visible in
five key areas, starting with trade.
1. Trade: From Dependence to Diversification
China’s
trade rebalancing is more pragmatic than political. Facing tariffs and
protectionism from Washington, Beijing has built new trade routes
through Asia, Europe and the Global South.
In
2018, the United States made up 19.3 percent of China’s total foreign
trade. By the first eight months of 2025, that share had fallen to 9.2
percent ‒ even as China’s total trade expanded 45 percent. The numbers
tell the story: China is trading more, just not as much with the U.S.
Imports
and exports of specific goods are also shifting. Once, 85 percent of
China’s soybeans came from the United States; today, 68 percent come
from Brazil, with U.S. imports down to 22 percent. Exports of high-tech
goods to the U.S. have dropped to 28 percent of China’s overall exports,
while sales of high-end equipment to Regional Comprehensive Economic
Partnership (RCEP) countries ‒ a trade bloc spanning Asia and the
Pacific ‒ jumped to 41 percent.
Beijing isn’t
cutting itself off from the U.S. market so much as ensuring it no longer
depends on it. Call it China’s version of “de-risking.”
2. Science and Technology: From Follower to Contender
If
Washington hoped sanctions and export controls would slow China down,
the opposite seems to have happened. Since 2018, the United States has
blacklisted more than 1,700 Chinese entities, aiming to block their
access to advanced technologies. The result has been a surge in
state-led innovation and a race to build domestic alternatives.
China
now holds 42 percent of global 5G standard-essential patents, and by
September 2025 it is expected to operate more than 4.6 million 5G base
stations ‒ about 60 percent of the world’s total. The scale of that
rollout has underpinned new industries such as the industrial internet
and the Internet of Vehicles.
The same pattern
is visible in artificial intelligence and frontier technologies. China
accounts for 61.5 percent of global generative AI patents and its
research papers in autonomous driving and quantum computing now exceed
U.S. publications in citation impact.
Research
and development spending reached 2.55 percent of GDP in 2024, with basic
research rising to 6.8 percent of that total. That reflect China’s
shift toward long-term capacity rather than fast commercial wins.
China’s
trend toward technological independence is showing up in hardware, too.
The Kirin 9000S chip, developed by Huawei and Semiconductor
Manufacturing International Corporation ‒ China’s leading chip foundry ‒
is produced without the extreme ultraviolet lithography tools made by
Dutch firm ASML, long considered indispensable for cutting-edge
semiconductors.
Other milestones are visible
across sectors: the Beidou satellite network now serves more than 200
countries and regions. The C919 jetliner has entered commercial service.
The Fendouzhe submersible reached a depth of 10,000 meters. The Chang’e
6 lunar probe returned samples from the far side of the moon.
From
drones and quantum computers to new battery systems, these examples
show how China’s tech ecosystem is increasingly self-contained ‒ and
determined to stay that way.
3. Finance: Diversifying Beyond the Dollar
China is seeking to reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar and build a more resilient global financial network.
Washington
has used the dollar as a tool of influence through SWIFT sanctions,
long-arm jurisdiction, and asset freezes, exposing the vulnerabilities
of a dollar-centric system. China’s response has been methodical and
gradual.
China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment
System now supports transactions in 185 countries. Renminbi
(RMB)-denominated trades for liquefied natural gas at the Shanghai Oil
and Gas Exchange are growing, while the Shenzhen Qianhai Joint Trading
Center routinely handles offshore soybean transactions in RMB. China has
signed local currency settlement agreements with more than 40
countries.
By 2023, cross-border RMB payments
reached 52 trillion yuan, representing 58 percent of total cross-border
flows in multiple currencies: a historic milestone that surpassed the
U.S. dollar in comparable measures. In China’s trade with Russia, over
95 percent of transactions are settled in local currencies.
China
is not aiming to displace the U.S. dollar. Instead, it is creating a
system where the dollar remains central but is supplemented by other
currencies, strengthening financial security and reducing exposure to
unilateral sanctions.
4. Ideology: Building up the China Model
China
is moving away from the idea that the U.S. model is the only path to
development. Instead, it is cultivating its own approach to governance,
knowledge, and global engagement. For decades Western theories such as
democratic peace theory framed global discourse and promoted a single
standard. China’s experience challenges that assumption.
China
has lifted more than 100 million people out of extreme poverty over the
past decade, achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
10 years ahead of schedule. In comparison, about 15 percent of the U.S.
population remains uninsured and debates over health coverage have led
to a government shutdown.
At home and abroad,
China is promoting its governance system as an example of “whole-process
people’s democracy.” Internationally China advocates multilateralism,
opposing exclusive trade and security blocs.
The
BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) grouping has
expanded from 5 to 15 countries, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
includes states representing 40 percent of the global population and
over 150 countries participate in the Belt and Road Initiative.
Through
these mechanisms, China is shifting from a recipient of U.S.-led global
rules to an active participant in shaping new governance structures.
Its
strategy is not anti-Americanism. Rather, it reflects a push to
participate on a more equal footing in global decision-making and to
promote a model of development informed by Chinese experience.
5. Education: From Brain Drain to Domestic Talent
China
is reshaping its higher education system to reduce reliance on American
universities and cultivate homegrown expertise. Before 2010, many of
China’s top universities modeled curricula and research evaluation
systems on U.S. standards.
At one point, a
significant share of Chinese science and engineering graduates stayed in
the United States, limiting domestic capacity for innovation. To
reverse this trend, China launched the Strengthening Basics Plan,
enrolling 180,000 students over five years in fields such as
semiconductors and nuclear science.
By 2024, 92 percent of graduates remained in China.
The
country has also moved away from using the Science Citation Index as
the sole metric for research evaluation, emphasizing innovation and
practical impact instead.
International
student flows have balanced: By 2024, China hosted 520,000 foreign
students, while the number of Chinese nationals studying in the United
States dropped from a peak of 400,000 to under 200,000.
Toward a Multipolar World
Across
trade, technology, finance, ideology, and education, China is building
the capacity to engage the world on its own terms. China’s
de-Americanization is not anti-globalization or anti-American. It is a
strategic recalibration aimed at creating an independent, resilient
China capable of participating in global cooperation with greater
equality.
China’s de-Americanization is part
of a broader shift from a unipolar U.S.-dominated system toward a more
multipolar global order. From the BRICS expansion to Belt and Road
projects, from independent 5G deployment to sharing poverty alleviation
strategies, China is asserting an alternative model of development that
is neither strictly Western nor American.
The
goal is not confrontation but strategic autonomy. In this evolving
framework, emerging economies can participate in global governance
without relying on a single dominant power. De-Americanization is less a
rebellion than a quiet repositioning ‒ laying the foundation for what
might be called re-globalization, in which a diverse, balanced, and
multipolar world order becomes the new standard.