Opinion | The Biden administration has no capacity to reason with China
By Tom Fowdy
Just days after the phone call between US President Joe Biden and Xi Jinping over the war in Ukraine, following on from the meeting between Yang Jiechi and Jake Sullivan in Rome, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced new sanctions on unspecified Chinese officials for "human rights abuses" in the form of "visa restrictions" citing the "repression of religious minorities". Although it was not mentioned by name, the measures were obviously targeted at the Xinjiang and Tibet autonomous regions, which the US has comprehensively weaponized against China as part of its campaign to try and contain it on the global stage.
This pattern of diplomacy should not be unfamiliar if you have observed US-China relations closely enough. It has in fact been a consistent and running theme of the Biden Presidency. Every single time the White House has conducted dialogue with China at a senior level, which includes either summits between representatives, or between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, the administration has subsequently followed it up by announcing sanctions on Beijing in some form, every time without fail. The behavior appears to be motivated by a premise for domestic political gain, fearing in turn that offering too much lenience or leigh way to China will lead to attacks on the administration.
In coming to office in January 2021, it was hoped by many that the Biden Presidency would correct a China policy shaped by his predecessor of which was effectively unhinged and restore ties between the two powers. Whilst Trump was understood as chaotic, erratic and unhinged, Biden was assumed to be experienced, sensible and mature. It was of course the caricature of how the world understood Trump which made Biden more appealing than he actually was, and to no surprise the new Presidency quickly adopted Trump's foreign policy on China as opposed to breaking with it, despite having criticized it in an early stage. In fact, "embracing" may be a more accurate word.
Whilst it is true on one hand that the Biden administration has avoided the vehement rhetoric espoused by the likes of Mike Pompeo, being slightly more cordial and speaking of a "stable and predictable relationship". In practice, the policy has in effect been the same. The administration appears to recognize in some areas the mistakes Trump made, yet it demonstrates a clear sense of anxiety in daring to change course. As a result, this has created a very contradictory mechanism where attempts at diplomacy are mixed with clear displays of hostility and domestic political theatre, which makes actual progress between the two countries difficult if not impossible, because making concessions to China is in effect a political taboo. As one example, the Xi-Biden summit of November 2021 was quickly followed up by a mass blacklisting of Chinese biomedical firms, a declaration of a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics and a running smear campaign to undermine the event.
This attitude creates a scenario whereby the US makes demands of China, but is allergic to any displays of goodwill. For example, the US is demanding more trade talks with China and insisting it change some of its "economic practices" to suit American interests, but otherwise continues to discriminate against Chinese companies out of both protectionist and political goals, treating the Trump era tariffs on China as a political "sacred cow" never to be defiled despite the US facing crippling inflation and so on. The US wants overall to treat the relationship not as something mutual and compromising, but an al-la-carte buffet of where it cherry-picks the things it wants but otherwise derides the rest. The US wants China to cooperate on Climate Change, it wants China to cooperate on Russia, but also reserves the right to treat it like an adversary, to discriminate against its companies, to militarize its periphery, to use genocide as a political weapon against it and form coalitions against it.
In this case, prospects for improvement in US-China ties will remain dismal because the Biden administration has no political will, capacity or interest in taking any bold moves which will improve the prospects of both countries. The aftermath of the Biden-Xi call and America's continuous attitude of mixing diplomacy with displays of bad faith behavior show hope for reason is slim. China is likely however to keep its relationship on a tightrope in such a tense epoch, as opposed to responding with more confrontation. More extreme voices after all, are determined to use the war in Russia as a means to further their crusade against Beijing in advance. As a result, every decision moving forwards should be taken very wisely, but under no illusions concerning the attitude or intentions of the US.
The author is a well-seasoned writer and analyst with a large portfolio related to China topics, especially in the field of politics, international relations and more. He graduated with an Msc. in Chinese Studies from Oxford University in 2018.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
Read more articles by Tom Fowdy:
Opinion | Xi owes Biden no favours, China must drive a hard bargain
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Opinion | America is trying to use Russia to humiliate China
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