A fresh face at the table may be just what the U.S.-China relationship needs. With Joe Biden officially in the Oval Office, the work is cut out for the new administration.
New U.S. President Joe Biden is facing a new and different China focused on global rules. It is trying to work with the United States in a mutually beneficial way, but it is preparing for the worst-case scenario. The two countries now have a window of opportunity to usher in a new phase in their relationship.
China-U.S. relations in the post-Trump era will be driven by China’s increasing strength and shifts in global diplomacy. Because Trump failed to keep China pinned down, the United States will sooner or later be forced to adjust to new realities.
Ben ReynoldsWriter and Foreign Policy Analyst in New York
After the turbulence of the Trump years, some foreign observers may be hopeful for a diplomatic reset from the incoming Biden administration. The Trump administration imposed serious tariffs on both China and its own allies, alienated many of the U.S.’s military partners, and engaged in empty saber
-rattling whenever possible. While we will certainly see a change in temperament from the Biden administration, incoming officials have signaled not to expect a radical departure from Trump’s policies on trade. Indeed, many of the domestic political calculations that made the Trump administration take up a Sisyphean trade war with China remain relevant today. The era of protectionism and more forceful U.S.-China trade competition thus may be here to stay.
If the U.S. president, under pressure, makes a hybrid of the Trump and Obama legacies, intensified strategic competition in China-U.S. relations is likely and the risk of confrontation will continue to rise.