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US versus China: Joe Biden's first 100 days resembled Trump's in many ways
Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment
- What's changing: Chinese experts say that Joe Biden's style nearly 100 days into his tenure differs little from the administration of his predecessor, who erected multiple economic barriers and portrayed Beijing as a human rights pariah, amid bipartisan consensus that China was a threat.
- No decoupling: Trump had openly spoken of the need to decouple US economy from Chinese, but Biden is stopping short of it. On 30th April, Biden's presidency will pass the 100-day mark, a symbolic milestone against which administrations are often assessed. On China, the past three months have seen the Biden administration sanction Chinese officials over human rights abuses in Xinjiang and the erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong; uphold a determination that the treatment of Uygurs in Xinjiang constitutes “genocide”; roll out new guidelines for increased engagement with Taiwanese officials; and carry out naval drills in the South China Sea.
- Laws: On the legislative front, the administration has also thrown its support behind a bipartisan bill that would allocate US$112 billion for research in technology considered critical in the deepening competition between the US and China. When it came to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s blueprint to engage with China along three lines – confrontation, competition, and cooperation – the administration’s first 100 days had skewed toward confrontation with elements of competition.
- Experts say there was little evidence of cooperation, the one exception being Xi Jinping’s participation in Biden’s virtual climate summit in April
- Biden's officials said the government would “not shy away from hard topics and addressing them directly with China” including the 'genocide going on in Xinjiang province'
- Republicans attacking Biden: Despite Biden’s willingness to maintain or even escalate tensions with Beijing on a number of areas, his first 100 days in office have seen some congressional Republicans continue efforts dating back to the presidential campaign to paint him as too friendly with Beijing. Republicans are found saying that “Russia and China are already pushing the President around, so we are very worried.” Republican China hawks including senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida have sought to paint a number of administration moves as indicative of a weak approach to handling Beijing, including Washington’s rejoining of the Paris Agreement and Biden’s military budget request. Scott accused Biden of “weak defence spending” and suggested he sought to “appease Communist China.”
- The big issues: Looking at the administration’s enhanced engagement with Taiwan, its frosty first bilateral meeting in Alaska, and its decision to keep in place tariffs implemented during the trade war, Biden’s approach is viewed as largely a continuation of his predecessor’s, barring efforts to work more closely with allies.
- The investment deal that the European Union and China agreed upon in the late stages of the Trump administration, “after four years in which our alliances were allowed to fray”, was a worry. But in a sign that EU leadership is warming to the prospect of a closer alliance with Washington under Biden, leaders of the bloc recently warned members that the EU and Beijing had “fundamental divergences” on matters including economic systems, human rights and relations with third countries.
- In a letter, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said those differences “must not be brushed under the carpet” and argued that the bloc should “accept [the Biden administration’s] open hand and work together, whilst asserting our own stance, and our own interests, on the world stage”.
- National security: The Commerce Department’s first tranche of “military end user”, or MEU, companies include 58 Chinese companies – including the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), the state-owned military aerospace contractor that is a key supplier for a commercial aircraft that Beijing is trying to bring to market – and 45 Russian ones.
- Biden’s administration is undertaking several reviews dealing directly and indirectly with China, the results of which will guide the US leader’s strategy in terms of technology trade with the country.
- This includes a 100-day review, announced in February, of the supply chains for semiconductors and advanced batteries used in electric vehicles, followed by a broader, long-term review of six sectors of the economy.
- The politics: In a sign of the polarisation, Biden’s approval rating at the 100-day mark stands at around 52 per cent, according to a Washington Post poll of more than 1,000 adults. While significantly higher than Trump’s 100-day rating at 42 per cent, the figure is less than that of any other president since Gerald Ford in 1974 (48 per cent).
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