US Says Decades of Trying to Convince Beijing to Rectify Trade Practices Largely Failed

The U.S. trade chief suggested the administration has shifted its strategy to have ‘managed trade’ and focus on reform ‘around the edges.’

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer testifies before the House Ways and Means Committee in the Longworth House Office Building in Washington on April 22, 2026. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The United States has spent decades engaging with Beijing to address its harmful trade policies, but U.S. Trade Ambassador Jamieson Greer recently acknowledged that those efforts have largely fallen short.

“We’ve just come to terms with the fact that there’s not going to be some giant comprehensive reform of the way the Chinese political system works, including all these economic elements,” Greer said at a May 26 event organized by the Council on Foreign Relations.