The inauguration of the 46th president of the United States will be held on Wednesday (20). Two new positions have been added to President-elect Biden’s governing team: “White House NSC Coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs” and “Senior Director for China Affairs,” filled by veteran China experts who have each made strong statements on Hong Kong, Taiwan, U.S.-China trade and the New Crown (Chinese Communist virus) outbreak.
Biden, 78, will be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday morning (20) EST. It has been announced that a number of key officials on the governing team have spoken out for Hong Kong.
Antony Blinken, who took over as secretary of state, spoke out for Hong Kong earlier in the year, tweeting about the arrest of more than 50 Hong Kong democrats, saying “this is an assault on the brave advocates of universal rights” and that the new administration will stand with the people of Hong Kong against Beijing’s crackdown on democracy.
Blinken has extensive diplomatic experience as deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration. In a U.S. Chamber of Commerce webinar last September, he said, “China poses a challenge to us not out of their superiority, but out of our own self-inflicted disadvantage,” and called on businesses to invest in the United States.
Blinken, who lived in France with his mother when he was young, speaks French fluently and is very knowledgeable about European affairs. According to outside analysis, Biden advocates uniting with Western democracies to pressure Beijing, and believes that Blinken is the flag bearer of “U.S.-European cooperation” and “uniting Europe against China”.
The appointment of Blinken to the position of Secretary of State is still subject to the Senate’s approval. As for the National Security Advisor position in the White House National Security Council, which does not require Senate consent, it will be taken over by 44-year-old Jake Sullivan, who has become the youngest White House National Security Advisor in nearly 60 years.
In addition, two new positions have been opened in the West Wing of the White House, namely “White House National Security Council Coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs” and “Senior Director for China Affairs. Kurt Campbell has been confirmed as the Coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs, and Laura Rosenberger, a hawkish China expert, as the Senior Director for China Affairs. It is believed that the future direction of U.S. policy toward China will be determined by Blinken, Sullivan, Campbell, and Rosenberger, with President Biden taking the lead.
On Hong Kong, Sullivan tweeted last month that he was “deeply concerned about the continued arrest and imprisonment of pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong. We stand in solidarity with our allies and partners to oppose the Chinese Communist Party’s infringement on Hong Kong’s freedoms and to assist the persecuted in finding safe haven. In an interview with NPR last December 30, the new national security adviser advocated joining forces with other democratic countries to counter China in a trade war, saying “then we will be able to make China change its behavior, or we can collectively make China pay. Earlier, Sullivan also mentioned that more attention should be paid to the Taiwan issue and that China should be warned about the new crown epidemic.
As for Campbell, his position as coordinator of Indo-Pacific affairs, he is responsible for Indo-Pacific affairs, including China. Campbell was involved in the formulation of the Obama-era “Return to Asia-Pacific” policy, and has friendly relations with Taiwan. Last December, Campbell told a webinar by the Vision Foundation, a Taiwan-based think tank, that the challenges and provocations posed by the Chinese Communist Party to the region and the world were one of the major issues facing the United States, and that “the time for not understanding the strategic importance of Taiwan is over. In the same month, he and China scholar Rush Doshi wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine that “the U.S.-China competition is primarily economic and technological, and that addressing this challenge requires a renewed push for domestic competitiveness and innovation in the United States” and that competing with China “does not require confrontation or a new Cold War. In a webinar on “The Future of the U.S. and China” at the Asia Society last Thursday (14), Campbell said the two countries might “pause for a moment, take a step back, take a deep breath, reflect, consider the small steps both sides can take, and release the desire to maintain a viable relationship in the future.
In 2019, Sullivan and Campbell wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine that the Chinese Communist Party poses a greater challenge to the United States than the former Soviet Union.
Another new position on the White House NSC is that of “senior director for China affairs,” filled by Laura Rosenberger, known as a hawkish “China person. She has worked for the Obama administration’s NSC on China and North Korea, and has recently criticized Beijing’s handling of the new crown outbreak. In an article in Foreign Affairs magazine last April, she said that Chinese Communist Party leaders “suppressed reports and research on the early stages of the outbreak, slowing down understanding of the virus and its power to spread,” and that the Communist Party took the opportunity to divide relations within Europe and with the United States.
Katherine Tai, whose parents are from Taiwan, speaks fluent Chinese and was chief trade enforcement counsel for China at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). Speaking at the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) Foundation in January, she described the Chinese Communist Party’s ambitious and growing economy, and described the Chinese economy as being dominated by the central government and not subject to political pluralism, democratic elections or public opinion.
As for the ambassadorship in China, no decision has been made yet. Robert Iger, the executive chairman of disney, is rumored to be the ambassador. Iger has a strong relationship with Biden and a longstanding relationship with Xi Jinping. Disney has a global presence, with two theme parks in China, and the arrangement could lead to a political backlash. The Washington Post has twice written against the Disney chairman becoming U.S. ambassador to China.
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