US President Joe Biden addresses to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber of the US Capitol in Washington on April 28, 2021. (MELINA MARA / THE WASHINGTON POST VIA AP, POOL)
US President Joe Biden has largely continued many of his predecessor’s confrontational policies toward China but also has sought de-escalation, as both countries will benefit by working together or be harmed otherwise, experts said in reviewing the first 100 days of his presidency.
The US researchers said that from tariffs to human-to-human exchanges, the Biden administration has yet to initiate any substantive rollbacks, and that among the three aspects — “adversarial, competitive and cooperative” — of US-China relations as described by Biden’s top diplomat Antony Blinken, competition is dominant while cooperation has yet to ramp up.
“Despite his stated desire to change the US approach toward Beijing, Biden has been hesitant to quickly undo several of his predecessor’s China policies,” noted Paul Haenle, Maurice R. Greenberg director’s chair at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center at Tsinghua University.
Norman J. Ornstein, an emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute based in Washington, said Biden has declared to undo whatever former president Donald Trump did, though their worldview is “drastically different”.
“It is difficult to make a complete turnaround in policy, including foreign policy, and so we’ve seen caution on the trade front and caution in other areas when it comes to relations with China,” Ornstein said at a webinar on April 27.
David Dollar, senior fellow at the John L. Thornton China Center of the Brookings Institution, also agreed that when it comes to China, Biden is largely continuing Trump’s approach but with some “important nuances”.
While Biden has emphasized rebuilding partnerships with allies attempting to counter China, most of them are not interested in a new Cold War, according to Dollar.
Michael Swaine, director of the East Asia program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said that the Biden administration has thus far failed to present a “realistic strategy” toward Beijing that reflects a recognition of the “urgent need” to stress shared leadership and military restraint over primacy and zero-sum rivalry, and prize constructive cooperation over zero-sum economic and technological competition.
Biden also seems to be ushering in a new era of big government in his first address to Congress.
In the past, presidents from both parties used similar speeches about the limits of government. Biden went in the opposite direction, offering a resounding embrace of the role Washington can play in improving lives.
Biden ticked off details of some of his plan for US$1.8 trillion in spending to expand preschool, create a national family and medical leave program, and distribute child care subsidies.
However, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of the Republican Party has argued that Biden’s plans are a “Trojan horse” that will lead to middle-class tax hikes.
Agencies contributed to this story.
