Mohamed Zeeshan

Opinion | As regional actors rise, US-China story no longer defines global affairs

Unrestrained regional powers jostling for control, building weapons and taking bolder risks are influencing trajectory of world politics

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Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives to meet US President Joe Biden at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Lima, Peru, on November 16. Photo: AFP

Mohamed Zeeshan

Published: 5:30am, 26 Dec 2024Updated: 8:35am, 26 Dec 2024

For years, observers and policymakers in Washington assumed US-China tensions will be the defining factor in global affairs, as American power declines and is replaced by Chinese influence worldwide. In 2024, they were proved wrong.

When US President Joe Biden took office in 2021, his administration presented China as a critical strategic and economic competitor. Much of Biden’s foreign policy, especially on Asia, was based on a strategy of isolating Beijing and counterbalancing its influence through a network of alliances.

Biden continued the trade war he inherited from his predecessor, Donald Trump, and also encouraged American businesses to transfer their operations in China to countries more closely aligned with the United States.

These policies had a marked effect on US-China economic relations in recent years. According to official US government data, bilateral trade has fallen steadily, from nearly US$700 billion in 2022 to under US$500 billion for the first 10 months of 2024.

Yet, after tensions in the first half of Biden’s term over Taiwan and a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon, US-China relations have largely become a side story in international affairs. While US-China tensions loom large, they have rarely driven or defined major developments in the last couple of years.

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