WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden took office promising to move quickly to restore and repair U.S. relations with the rest of the world, but one of the major nations has yet to see any U.S. efforts to improve ties: China.
From Iran to Russia, from Europe to Latin America, Biden has tried to cool tensions that rose during President Donald Trump’s four-year term. However, there have been no openings to China.
Although the Biden administration has stopped the fierce rhetorical attacks and almost the daily announcements of new sanctions against China which had become a commonplace under Trump, has yet to recede any of Trump’s actions against Beijing.
This persistent state of low-intensity hostility has profound implications. China and the United States are the two largest economies in the world and the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases. Its power struggle complicates global efforts to tackle climate change and recover from the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden’s tough stance has its roots in competition for world power, but it is also the result of the 2020 presidential election campaign in which Trump and his allies repeatedly tried to portray him as soft with China, especially during the pandemic that originated there.. There is also little appetite for lawmakers on either side to lessen pressure on China.
Thus, in their first month in office, Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have reaffirmed many of the Trump administration’s most significant steps toward China, including the determination that its repression against Uighur Muslims. and other minorities in the western Xinjiang region constitute a “genocide” and a total rejection of almost all of China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea.
Nor has the new administration pointed to any waiver of Trump tariffs, restrictions on Chinese diplomats, journalists and academics in the U.S., or criticism of Chinese policies toward Tibet, Taiwan and Hong Kong. He is also critical of Beijing’s attempts to foster its growing global influence through telecommunications technology, social media, and educational and cultural exchanges.
Biden’s CIA candidate William Burns, was explicit about his concerns about many of those issues at his confirmation hearing Wednesday. And, the newly confirmed U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, highlighted her unease with the state of affairs and pledged to combat Chinese attempts to exert undue pressure on other countries in the UN.
The backdrop is clear: the United States is convinced that they and China are engaged in a duel for world domination. And neither is ready to back down.
At times, China has seemed hopeful that Biden will reverse what Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said were actions by the Trump administration that “caused immeasurable damage to the relationship between the two countries.” .
These remarks followed a speech in which top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi demanded that the Biden administration lift restrictions on trade and people-to-people contacts and end what Beijing considers unjustified interference in areas of Taiwan, Hong Kong. Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet.
Wang urged the US to “stop tarnishing” the reputation of China’s ruling communist party. “We hope that US policymakers will keep pace with the times, see the trend of the world clearly, abandon bias, give up unjustified suspicions and move Chinese politics back to reason to ensure a healthy and consistent development of China. U.S. relations, ”he said.
But the rhetoric against China has not diminished. Top officials in the Biden administration have vowed to use U.S. power to contain what many Democrats and Republicans see as growing Chinese threats to U.S. interests and values in the Asia-Pacific and beyond.
They have all repeatedly referred to China as a strategic rival or enemy, not as a potential partner or friend, and have also demonstrated their belief that the United States must “surpass” China.
“China’s competition will be key to our national security in the coming decades,” Burns said in his confirmation hearing. “China is a formidable authoritarian adversary, methodically strengthening its capabilities to steal intellectual property, repress its own people, intimidate its neighbors, expand its global reach, and generate influence in American society.”
“It’s hard for me to see a greater threat or challenge to the United States as far as I can see in the 21st century than that. It is the biggest geopolitical test we face, ”he said.
At least some Asian hands in the United States consider Biden to be moving slowly toward a possible compromise with China in part because he wants to strengthen his national position and make it clear that the U.S. is not a victim of Chinese predation.
“They are abstaining from the normal syndrome of a new administration that solves the problem with China,” said Danny Russel, who was Asia’s deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration and is now vice president of the ‘Asian Society Policy Institute.
Russel said Biden is “sending messages that have the effect of proving that he is not soft on China, that he is not a patsy for China, that he is not so desperate for a breakthrough in climate change that will change our national security interests “.
Chinese academics see little difference in Biden’s approach.
“Continuity has precedents over adjustment and change,” said Zhu Feng, a professor of international relations at elite Nanjing University.
Biden will have to deal with a much more powerful and influential China than in previous U.S. administrations, said Yu Wanli, a professor of international relations at Beijing University of Language and Culture.
“There has been a huge deviation between what they believe is China and what China really is,” Yu said. “His policies in China are based on illusions, which must have some negative consequences. It takes time to get back to reality. ”
Aside from its support for Taiwan, the United States views China’s policies in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and other places as human rights issues, while China sees them as sovereignty issues, Yu said. “Frictions will continue to exist and the pattern will remain the same.”