President Joe Biden has pledged to step up his diplomatic efforts and seek a more coordinated approach with U.S. allies to address the trade challenges posed by the Chinese Communist Party.
However, Biden’s strategy of uniting friendly nations to pressure Beijing faces divisions as partners such as Germany and France have made their inconsistent positions clear.
French President Emmanuel Macron last week said he opposed the creation of a bloc against the Communist Party, saying it would be “counterproductive.”
In a Feb. 4 interview with the Atlantic Council, a think tank, Macron said, “This is a situation that is most likely to lead to a conflict.”
He said, “For me, this would be counterproductive because it would push the Chinese Communist Party to strengthen its regional strategy.” He added that it would also discourage the Chinese Communist government from cooperating on global issues such as climate change.
Macron’s comments follow German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refusal to stand with the United States in its efforts to contain the Chinese Communist Party.
I would very much like to avoid a bloc,” Merkel said at the Davos World Economic Forum on Jan. 26. “I think that if we say the United States on one side and the Chinese Communist Party on the other, we either I think it’s not fair to many societies if we say this side is the United States and that side is the Chinese Communist Party and we either form a bloc around this side or we form a bloc around the other side. That’s not my understanding of what things should look like.”
Working with allies has been a cornerstone of the Biden Administration‘s efforts to address a range of thorny issues in its policy toward China, from trade to human rights to Hong Kong.
German human rights advocates have been urging the Merkel government to take a tougher stance against the Chinese Communist regime on Hong Kong and Xinjiang. But critics say economic interests are holding up the process.
Philip Stephens, a columnist for the Financial Times, argues that Germany is not a reliable partner for the United States because of its business interests in China and Russia.
In his recent op-ed, he writes, “Berlin cannot be expected to choose between human rights and overseas sales of, say, Volkswagen, BMW or Mercedes, to name a few.”
On December 30, 2020, a few weeks before Biden’s inauguration, Merkel strongly pushed for a commercial investment agreement between the EU and the Chinese Communist Party.
The comprehensive agreement, which took seven years, enables European investors to gain greater access to markets. As part of the deal, the Chinese Communist government also agreed to ensure fair treatment of EU companies and to address forced labor issues. The agreement has been criticized by the Biden team, which has called for “early consultations” with the new administration.
It is unclear how the White House will work with U.S. allies to meet the Communist challenge.
Clete Willems, who was the Trump administration’s lead trade negotiator and deputy director of the National Economic Council, supports Biden’s strategy of working with allies. However, he also acknowledged that the commercial ties between Europe and the Chinese Communist Party are a major obstacle.
“If this strategy is to succeed, then Europe needs to show more ambition,” he said.
He said the EU should fight more resolutely for a market-oriented trade policy, despite pressure from business and the Communist regime.
When asked on Feb. 5 after Macron’s remarks whether the Biden administration could rely on Europe, White House press secretary Jen Psaki avoided directly answering the question posed by the media.
She responded, “This administration believes that the United States is in strategic competition with the Chinese Communist Party, and technology is a central area of that competition.” She also said the Biden administration would not allow Beijing to diminish U.S. leadership in technology and research.
She said, “That’s certainly the message that the president has conveyed in his conversations with our partners and allies.”
Psaki also said on Feb. 11 that the Biden administration is “not in a hurry” and is “taking a strategic approach” to dealing with the Communist Party.
On Wednesday (Feb. 10), Biden held his first phone call with Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping since taking office. According to a White House statement, during the two-hour call, Biden expressed “his fundamental concerns about Beijing’s coercive and unfair economic practices, its repressive behavior in Hong Kong, its human rights violations in Xinjiang, and its increasingly assertive actions in the region, including Taiwan.”
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