Opinion | The US is not retreating from global leadership – it’s refocusing on Asia

America’s hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan has prompted a drop in President Joe Biden’s approval rating and energised the debate over the decline in US global leadership.

Russia and China are among the main proponents of the argument that the swift US pull-out should be seen as a bellwether by America’s allies such as Ukraine and Taiwan – a sign that they may similarly be abandoned. Viewed internationally as a mess, the clumsy US departure might, however, be politically considered more of a refocusing than a retreat.

Indeed, Washington is simultaneously refocusing on domestic and regional issues. The former has so many schisms along political, cultural and ideological lines that former president George W. Bush, in recalling the September 11 attacks, said: “When it comes to the unity of America, those days seem distant from our own.”

Biden’s presidency has been marked by the shifting of priorities from foreign policy to the domestic issues best epitomised by his flagship Build Back Better Agenda – which is struggling to win bipartisan support.

The widening political divide in the US has translated into its recent foreign policy swings. Biden has just broken six months of phone silence to call Chinese President Xi Jinping in what Beijing described as “a very candid exchange”.

It was only the second call between the two leaders since Biden entered the Oval Office. Though it can be regarded as a step forward in bilateral relations – following fruitless discussions between Antony Blinken and Yang Jiechi, Wendy Sherman and Xie Feng, and Wang Yi and John Kerry – the content of the conversation highlighted the low ebb in US-China ties.