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Opinion | Unlike China, Russia shouldn’t expect any major improvements in US relations under Biden
- China-US relations under Biden are likely to become less confrontational and more predictable, but they will remain challenging. Meanwhile, Russia can expect more of the same, including the continuation of sanctions
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Having secured enough electoral college votes to wrest the US presidency away from Donald Trump, former US vice-president Joe Biden is expected to initiate a major revision of American foreign policy, which has seen many dramatic turns under Trump.
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This will no doubt include North Korea – a regional actor critical to China. Trump’s brash attempts at diplomacy there, notably his meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, did not pay off.
Trump also launched a trade war against China to hold it accountable for its unfair trade practices and intellectual property violations. However, the tariffs on around US$400 billion worth of Chinese goods brought the US more pain than gain, cutting the country’s gross domestic product by 0.3-0.7 per cent, rendering 300,000 Americans jobless and costing US companies US$1.7 trillion in the price of their stocks.
Biden is expected to roll back most of Trump’s foreign policy initiatives. In the foreign policy vision he laid out during his campaign, Biden said he would commence a coordinated campaign on North Korea with US allies and others, including China, to push Pyongyang to denuclearise.
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North Korea’s new ‘monster’ intercontinental ballistic missiles on show at military parade
North Korea’s new ‘monster’ intercontinental ballistic missiles on show at military parade
Unlike Trump, Biden favours a cooperative approach that includes Chinese participation. For China, a Biden presidency might signal the opening of a window for dialogue on regional issues that had been stuck since Trump took office.
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