Biden's view on China coming into focus
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Chinese reports have acknowledged that back-channel contacts are going on with Biden’s circle. China’s decision to extend congratulations to Biden suggested that it wanted to send a signal to the president-elect to unfreeze the ties despite current setbacks.
Indeed, there are different discussions taking place in the US on how to meet the China challenge; what sort of trade policy will be productive; how far to go on the path of the “tech war,” and so on. The assumption that there are inevitable tensions, inevitable difficulties between the US and China is valid. But the two countries are not necessarily destined to be conflictual.
A more constructive China policy is in the making. The period of optimism in the Sino-American relationship has become history. The salience is about the US’ ability to get China to move in a direction that it wants – be it on economic policies or political issues.
Put differently, the trajectory of the discussion in the US is how the Biden administration can pursue its policy toward China in a more effective way. Now, this wasn’t so under Trump. The most recent past has been about conflict and criticism.
But there was no measurement of success; the trajectory became an end in itself. Meanwhile, Biden’s advisers are pondering whether Trump’s approach has really changed China’s policies.
Their challenge is to frame a new matrix of more competitive policies on trade, climate, etc with a view to get China actually to move in a direction that the US wants.
https://asiatimes.com/2020/11/biden-will-reset-washingtons-china-policies/