If you expected there to be some kind of “reset” between Beijing and Washington as the Biden administration took over, you are about to be …
If you expected there to be some kind of “reset” between Beijing and Washington as the Biden administration took over, you are about to be disappointed. America’s China policy under President Joe Biden is likely to be just as assertive as it was under President Donald Trump, but much more effective. In Trump’s final weeks in office, officials made it clear that they were trying to enact as many hardline China policies as possible. On January 9, for example, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo terminated restrictions on contact between US and Taiwanese officials. Those restrictions had been in place since Beijing and Washington restarted relations 1970s. China considers Taiwan a part of its territory — making Taipei’s leadership illegetimate in Beijing’s eyes — and has said that any US interference with that is a “red line.” These moves were made, in part, as a way to force the incoming Biden administration’s policy onto a more aggressive path. But that was likely unnecessary. Biden has already signaled that he will continue working with Taiwan by inviting Taiwan’s envoy to the United States to his inaugeration — the first time a Taiwanese envoy has been invited to the swearing in since 1979. “Trump was right to take a tougher approach China,” said incoming Secretary State Tony Blinken in his Senate confirmtion hearing last week. Blinken said he also agreed that China’s treatment of Muslim minorities in its Xinjiang province should be considered genocide, a designation the Trump administration made on its way out the door. This is where team Trump and team Biden meet. Over the last four years the geopolitical landscape has shifted. China has taken a more aggressive posture, partly driven by a belief that the US aims to destroy the Chinese economy, and partly driven by a belief that the US in decline. There are no more China doves in Washington either. What once seemed impossible — a decoupling of the US and Chinese economies — is now discussed as something to be taken seriously.
