China and the GOP

 

China’s Biggest Ally in the U.S. May Be the GOP

Republican obstructionism threatens to undermine what’s shaping up to be a very effective strategy from the Biden administration.

By 

Minxin Pei

11 Nisan 2021 03:00 GMT+3

 

Biden has China on the back foot. 

Photographer: Jason Lee/AFP/Getty Images

Minxin Pei is a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College.

 

During the bitter U.S. presidential campaign, Republicans tried to paint Joe Biden as a quisling who wouldn’t stand up to the Chinese Communist Party — “Beijing Biden.” In fact, China’s most useful ally in the U.S. may turn out to be the GOP.

The reality is that Biden’s China policy is no less confrontational than his predecessor’s. His administration treats China as the topmost geopolitical threat facing the United States. Biden has maintained tariffs on Chinese imports and sanctions against Chinese technology companies. Despite Chinese protests, the U.S. hasn’t slackened in its firm support of Taiwan.

Even more worrying from China’s perspective, Biden is implementing a more coherent strategy than former President Donald Trump ever managed, one that maximizes U.S. strengths and exploits China’s vulnerabilities and mistakes. And, so far, it’s working.

The new U.S. administration clearly understands that China’s recent aggressiveness is a product of the Chinese leadership’s perception of U.S. decline. Only by addressing internal socioeconomic problems such as inequality, poor infrastructure, inadequate government investment in education and science, and racial disparities can the U.S. maintain its global economic leadership and thus alter China’s strategic calculus and behavior.

To that end, Biden’s $1.9 trillion economic rescue package is expected to raise growth to 6.4% and help the U.S. surpass China as the largest contributor to global GDP growth this year. The $2.25 trillion infrastructure plan Biden recently proposed, if passed by Congress, should provide an even bigger boost to long-term U.S. competitiveness.

Just as importantly, while Trump’s “America First” foreign policy alienated friends and allies, Biden has re-established a rock-solid U.S. commitment to multilateralism. His administration has rejoined the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization. It has allowed the World Trade Organization to move forward under new leadership and is working hard to revive the Iran nuclear deal.

That approach is helping the U.S. to construct a durable framework of containment against China for the coming decades. Biden recently took the first step toward cementing a semi-formal Indo-Pacific security alliance by convening the first-ever summit of the Quad — the U.S., India, Australia and Japan. Even more impressive was Biden’s success in orchestrating a concerted effort by European, British and Canadian allies to impose sanctions on China for its human-rights abuses in Xinjiang.

Without such wide support, the Trump administration’s own Xinjiang sanctions had a muted diplomatic impact. By contrast, China lashed out against the new campaign, hitting the U.K., European Union and Canada with retaliatory sanctions. Not only has its petulance brought China’s relations with key U.S. allies to a new low, it has endangered a highly prized recent achievement — its investment agreement with the EU, which China had hoped to use as a wedge between Brussels and Washington.   

In both cases, Biden’s advisers have skillfully exploited China’s habit of turning friends, or even neutral players, into enemies. In Asia, the U.S. has tapped into the deep fears of China’s neighbors, in particular Japan and India, about Beijing’s military modernization, expansive territorial claims and aggressive behavior.