Biden’s China policy: concepts, events, preliminary results

Abstract

Biden’s foreign policy team worked out the new concept of its relations with China. The main idea of this concept is more nuanced approach to China’s behavior, reassessing bilateral ties with China to separate the spheres of confrontation, regulated competition and possible cooperation for commonly shared goals. However, this concept and ideology still failed to be applied to practical policy. Biden’s many steps towards China, especially in economic and military realms, are in fact showing the inertia and obvious continuity with Trump’s policies. In political sphere, Biden’s stress for «human rights» issues, so typical for Democratic Party, make the dialogue with China the same unproductive, as it was in the Trump’s era. In economic relations Biden’s administration is not cancelling high trade tariffs on China goods, being oriented on “regulated trade” approach in its ties with PRC. Biden’s administration is more successful and active than Trump in pushing through Congress the legislation for spending on innovation and technological upgrading of the U.S. economy, that is vital to successful competition with China.