Douglas H. Paal

Opinion | Why Joe Biden is taking his time with America’s China policy

The Biden administration is trying to tighten the loose ends of China policy left behind by Trump, while keeping the policy details in the shadows

It suits the White House to ride a wave of bipartisan hostility towards Beijing, and to try to preserve its congressional majority in the 2022 midterm election

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Douglas H. Paal

Published: 1:30am, 16 Jun 2021Updated: 2:18am, 16 Jun 2021

We are now six months into the new administration of President Joe Biden, in the middle of his plans to “build back better” for the United States. But when it comes to policies related to China, there is not yet much to see that gives concrete meaning to that slogan.

Of course, we should remember that in his remarkably disciplined campaign for office, candidate Biden focused on first defeating the Covid-19 pandemic, jump-starting the American economy and dealing with social and racial inequities, not reversing or substantially changing Donald Trump’s erratic China policies.

In the early months, Biden has presided over remarkably successful roll-outs of vaccines against the pandemic. You can feel America getting back to work, school and life as the virus loosens its grip.

Biden has legislated for aggregate huge financial relief for ordinary citizens. He has more legislative initiatives in the pipeline. And the new administration is more diverse in its composition than any predecessor’s.

But when it comes to dealing with China, the administration’s stated ambitions so far have been quite limited. Understandably, the Biden team wants to do the good work of repairing the alliances and partnerships with other capitals that Trump did so much to undermine.

This week’s foray through Europe is meant to underline that effort. The thinking appears to be that to deal with China ultimately from a position of strength, a lot of homework needs to be done first. It is difficult to fault that logic.