China policy has become a proxy for different economic strategies at home: more investment (and deficit spending) vs. budget cuts and a market-driven approach.
From Trump to Biden, Congress has remained at the center of the so-called Washington consensus to end previous engagement in favor of strong opposition to Beijing.
Despite intense partisan frictions, on China policy in particular there is much room for consensus.
By
January 08, 2021
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The Biden administration is coming to power amid acute partisan divisions and massive immediate challenges posed by the pandemic and economic instability and longer term concerns including climate change. This fraught situation provides the context as the new U.S. government deliberates over China policy.
On the one hand, the Trump government leaves a legacy of strong American countermeasures against Chinese challenges that will be hard to reverse, especially because the U.S. Congress continues bipartisan support for such measures and outgoing President Donald Trump seems determined to remain a force in American politics. On the other hand, there are reasons to judge that the Biden government’s approach to China will not worsen relations with China and may lead to some improvement, even if China sticks to its current position offering no conces