US-China relationship increasingly driven by domestic concerns in both nations, analyst says
- While Xi Jinping centralises power in Beijing, the US Congress is often making policy in its legislation, Evan Medeiros notes
- As a result, he finds, both sides are entering an era of potentially minimal cooperation and coordination
A more centralised power structure in China and political changes in the US that have put concerns about Beijing at the centre of national discourse will make it difficult for Chinese President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Joe Biden to carry out the agreements they reached last month, a leading China analyst has concluded.
Changes in China’s domestic politics “create and sustain incentives to see the United States as a long-term strategic and ideological adversary”, Evan Medeiros, a senior fellow on foreign policy at the Centre for China Analysis, said in a new report.
Published on Thursday by the Asia Society, Medeiros’s report – “The New Domestic Politics of US-China Relations” – found “implications of the changes in Chinese politics for US-China relations are substantial and accumulating”. As a result, he said, China seeks to minimise cooperation and coordination with the US.
“This is even true when immediate economic and political needs require tactical diplomatic adjustments such as following the November 2023 summit,” he said, referring to the Xi-Biden meeting at the sidelines of the Apec forum in California.
