Here is the news (and Trumpian references) of Biden’s strategy on China
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken exposed the Biden administration's strategy on China. The United States says it does not want a new Cold War: its motto is to invest in infrastructure and technology, align with partners and win the competition with Beijing
On Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered an anticipated speech at George Washington University on Joe Biden's administration's approach to China, the United States' main economic and political rival.
THE GOAL DOES NOT CHANGE …
From those forty-five minutes a policy emerged that was not too different, in substance, from that of the previous administration of Donald Trump. It is a confirmation of the centrality of Beijing in Washington's grand strategy for maintaining world primacy, which overcomes the many divisions between the Democrats and the Republicans. Moreover, already in January 2021 Blinken declared that he was "in disagreement, a lot, on the way in which [Trump] has acted in different areas, but the basic principle was right": the Chinese rise must be prevented.
… CHANGE THE METHOD: INVEST, ALIGN, COMPETE
If the goal has remained the same, the method developed to reach it has changed a lot. Trump's motto was America First . The priority given to US interest, even with a certain rhetorical aggression, led Washington to clash with many of its allies and key partners – both in Asia and in Europe and in North America – preventing it from building a coalition useful for Chinese containment. The Biden administration's slogan, on the other hand, is Invest, Align, Compete : “invest, align, compete”.
THE INVESTMENT
The investment is internal to the United States, in what Blinken calls "the foundation of our strength": democracy, competitiveness and innovation. President Biden had defined democracy as America's " source of power ": a functional democratic system, that is, allows the nation to express its economic potential and remain the political guide of the world order. The instrument through which to guarantee US competitiveness is the law on infrastructure , which will not only serve to repair highways and bridges but above all to enable the country to dominate the new industries created by the energy transition. Ultimately, innovation is synonymous with microchips , artificial intelligence, batteries and biotechnologies (and the related standards of use).
ALIGNMENT
The alignment, on the other hand, concerns the recovery and strengthening of ties with allies, especially those in Asia-Pacific such as India, Japan and Australia: in this sense, the Quad and the AUKUS are crucial platforms.
THE COMPETITION
Finally, through investments and alignments, the United States will be able to "compete with China to defend our interests and build our vision for the future," said Blinken: a future – this is Washington's goal – in which the dominant global order is still the one shaped by America over seventy years ago.
In his first speech as president to Congress in April a year ago, Biden said: “We are competing with China and other countries to win the 21st century […]. We have to compete harder than we have done ”. In 2018, then Vice President Mike Pence described the relationship between Washington and Beijing as being driven by competition and confrontation.
NO TO THE COLD WAR
The Biden administration prefers to talk about competition rather than confrontation. Blinken actually says that there are political and systemic divergences between the United States and China; Furthermore, Biden's foreign policy is entirely based on the opposition between democracy and autocracy.
However, in his speech at George Washington University, Blinken points out that the United States does not want an armed confrontation or a "new Cold War" with China, nor will it try to isolate it. They will not hinder its economic growth, but they want it to respect the rules on intellectual property, on state aid to companies and on reciprocity of access to markets. They do not want to take away its status as a great power nor will they try to change its political structure by overthrowing the Communist Party, but they will demand respect for international law (Beijing represses ethnic minorities because it considers human rights an internal issue, and says it also wants to annex Taiwan by force).
The point is that China has no intention of joining the American world order, but rather wants to shape its own, which reflects its values. In this regard, Blinken said that "China is the only country that has both the intention of reshaping the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do so". The secretary added that China exploits the dependence of other nations on its technologies and its manufacturing to impose its political will.
2001 is long past, and the United States has now understood that the People's Republic will not democratize. "We cannot count on Beijing changing its trajectory," Blinken admitted. "We will therefore shape the strategic environment around Beijing to advance our vision of an open and inclusive international system." In concrete terms, it means creating more or less explicit alliances on security, standards for new technologies and trade . All things that China interprets as real examples of containment, beyond Blinken's assurances.
IN THE GREAT STRATEGY THERE IS CHINA, NOT RUSSIA
It had been clear for years, even to European governments, but in his speech Blinken wanted to reiterate it once again: the priority in US foreign policy is China; certainly not Russia, which does not have the economic and military means to be a rival. The war started by the Kremlin in Ukraine is an interlude that Washington must keep an eye on and that it can use to its advantage to weaken an opponent , without however losing sight of the grand strategy : "even if President Putin's war continues", he Blinken declared, "we will remain focused on the more serious long-term challenge to the international order, which is the People's Republic of China".
Blinken announced the creation of a "China House" within the State Department, which is a specialized division that will be responsible for coordinating the Chinese policy of the structure and collaborating with Congress.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/amministrazione-biden-strategia-cina/ on Sat, 28 May 2022 05:53:46 +0000.