Biden’s new China doctrine
Its protectionism and its us-or-them rhetoric will hurt America and put off allies
OPTIMISTS LONG hoped that welcoming China into the global economy would make it a “responsible stakeholder”, and bring about political reform. As president, Donald Trump blasted that as weak. Now Joe Biden is converting Trumpian bombast into a doctrine that pits America against China, a struggle between rival political systems which, he says, can have only one winner. Between them, Mr Trump and Mr Biden have engineered the most dramatic break in American foreign policy in the five decades since Richard Nixon went to China.
Mr Biden and his team base their doctrine on the belief that China is “less interested in coexistence and more interested in dominance”. The task of American policy is to blunt Chinese ambitions. America will work with China in areas of common interest, like climate change, but counter its ambitions elsewhere. That means building up the strength at home and working abroad with allies that can supplement its economic, technological, diplomatic, military and moral heft.
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline "Biden’s new China doctrine"
More from Leaders
Why South Africans are fed up after 30 years of democracy
After a bright start the ANC has proved incapable of governing for the whole country
How disinformation works—and how to counter it
More co-ordination is needed, and better access to data
America’s reckless borrowing is a danger to its economy—and the world’s
Without good luck or a painful adjustment, the only way out will be to let inflation rip