The Biden administration is one month into its tenure, and it is almost racing to return to the Family of nations.
In addition to announcing his return to the Paris Climate Agreement and the WHO, Biden also announced the end of Trump‘s “America First” policy at a video conference at the G-7 summit on February 19, enthusiastically shouting “America is back” and reaffirming the U.S. commitment to the The Atlantic alliance is responsible – so far, except for the Pentagon due to the security constraints in the Asia-Pacific region still adhere to the established strategy, the U.S. foreign policy uphold “where Trump opposed, we have to restore”, with action to say “Apologize to the world instead of Trump”.
U.S. China Policy strategy ambiguous, G7 avoid talking about China
Biden’s speech at the G7 enthusiastically showed that “America is back, with money and smiles”, but the G7 is not the WHO or the Paris climate agreement, as long as the US gets money to support it. His speech, which was full of big words but empty of substance, was reserved by the participating stakeholders, and the reason for the reservation was because of the U.S. policy toward China.
Biden’s China policy has recently abandoned the use of the term “strategic patience,” but it remains strategically ambiguous. In his speech, Biden said: Democracies must come together to address the challenge posed by China, which is a long-term mission. The competition with China will be fierce, and he welcomes it because he has faith in the global system that Europe and the United States and its allies in the Indo-Pacific region have built over the past 70 years. It was a hollow and uninspired speech that failed to impress allies.
The day after the G7 conference, China’s Xinhua news agency reported that Xi Jinping approved and the Communist Party’s military commission issued a decision on building a new military training system, saying it would “comprehensively build a world-class army,” echoing the provocations of the Chinese Communist Party‘s warplanes, and making a high-profile claim that it would “twist and turn the strongest opponent “This provocative stance is not unrelated to the Biden Administration‘s “strategic ambiguity” toward China.
For this reason, at the G7 leaders’ meeting on Feb. 19, Biden did not discuss with his allies a common strategy against the Chinese Communist Party. Most of the meeting was spent discussing vaccine distribution, climate agreements, trade, social media, and the Tokyo Olympics, with only one mention of China, namely that they would consult with each other on a common approach to the Chinese government’s non-market-oriented policies and behavior.
Biden dismisses China’s authoritarianism as “multicultural”
This occurred in connection with the leaked contents of the February 10 call between Biden and Xi Jinping. Despite the recent erratic nature of Biden’s statements, the direction of U.S. policy toward China can be understood by looking at several major policy developments.
1, the strategic positioning of the Chinese Communist Party is not hostile relations, but positioned as “the most serious competitors”; 2, the Biden administration identified huawei as a non-trustworthy supplier, but refused to commit to continue to pull black, and did not prohibit the flow of U.S. capital into Chinese companies. 3, the response to the Chinese Communist Party’s policy in Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong and Taiwan, etc..
This last point, Biden has already had a statement. February 10 Bay Xi two leaders spoke for up to two hours, although China and the United States announced the content is still one word two tables, each picking their own image of the words, to their own people.
In an interview with CNN on Feb. 17, Biden finally couldn’t resist revealing to the host what he and Xi had talked about: “Knowing Chinese history, you know that when China is hurt by the outside world, that’s when they are divided at Home. Xi’s central principle is that there must be a unified, tightly controlled China. Based on that, Xi’s principle is internal unity, which is the starting point for what he does. I told him that no American president can be unresponsive to American values. On this point that I would not criticize the Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan issues, he expressed understanding. The two countries have different cultural standards that need to be followed by the leaders of each country.”
This statement was met with an outcry. Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo immediately commented that Biden was echoing “the propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party. The West, of course, took note of the CNN interview, with Senator Bill Hagerty tweeting, “Why is our president making excuses for Chinese Communist looting?”
With leaders watching the U.S.-China relationship, Biden’s statement is expected to be on their desks by the next day.
France and Germany made it clear that they do not look to the United States for guidance
In his speech, British Prime Minister Johnson warmly welcomed the United States back as the “leader of the free world”. European countries mostly agree with Biden’s proposition, because they do not want to spend money to maintain the international order, still want to ride the United States, Germany and France have been distant to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, but also reluctant to entrust their security to other countries other than the United States.
However, Britain has already left the European Union, which has little impact on Europe; it is mainly France and Germany that determine the attitude of the EU.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke immediately after Biden by name. She welcomed Biden’s positive statement, but focused on the fact that “China has gained influence globally in recent years” and that Merkel is concerned about the complexity of dealing with the Chinese Communist Party, given its dual role as a competitor and partner of the West. She therefore stressed that Germany is no longer willing to simply follow the United States on the world stage. Her statement that “our interests will not always converge” was interpreted as a reference to Germany’s ambivalence toward China as a major market for German automobiles and high-end products, as well as to its conflict with the United States over the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Russia. gas pipeline to Russia and the continuing disagreement with the United States.
Notably, at a press conference after the G7 summit on the same day, Merkel stressed that the economy needs to recover after the Epidemic and that the G7 wants to strengthen cooperation with the G20, especially with China, in order to rebuild the world economic system.
In his speech, Macron advocated the concept of “strategic autonomy”. He suggested that with Europe’s increasing focus on Asia, especially China, Europe can no longer be overly dependent on the United States as it has been for the past few decades. Macron wants NATO to be more of a political body in which European member states have the same status as the United States and are less subject to U.S.-dominated decision-making tendencies. He believes that Europe should “take more responsibility for its own protection” and keep its commitment to increase defense spending in order to rebalance transatlantic relations.
If this talk by Macron is not understood, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in an interview with France Inter on Feb. 18 before the G7 meeting that “we have entered into a (foreign) development model and influence war with China. war.” He noted that the new development policy bill introduced by the French government is rooted in geopolitical influences. He stressed, “We have to defend a model and values.”
More interesting: Biden expressed a desire to deepen the supply chain among Western allies, including hardware and software, in order to reduce dependence on the Chinese Communist Party. Macron, on the other hand, has tit-for-tat proposed to start acting now, and he has decided to improve the technological capabilities of the EU to reduce its dependence on the U.S. and Chinese supply chains.
The New Convergence and Convergence of the International Community in the 2020s
There is nothing new under the sun. A closer look at the restructuring of international relations clearly shows that the international strategies of the United States and China have not departed from the ancient Chinese diplomatic strategy of unification and unification.
During the Warring States period of China (475 – 221 B.C.), the seven masters of Qin, Chu, Yan, Zhao, Han, Wei and Qi stood side by side, with Qin being strong and the remaining six states relatively weak. The other strategist, Zhang Yi, proposed a conjoined strategy, which allowed Qin to lobby Qi and Zhao, the major states among the six or four, to lure them with the benefits of commerce, successfully defeating Su Qin’s conjoined strategy – the name of this diplomatic strategy comes from the geographical location of the seven states: Qin was in the west and the six states were in the east, so the six states’ lands were connected north and south, hence the name conjoined strategy; as opposed to conjoined strategy.
The Biden administration, which pursues “strategic ambiguity” with China, is running to the international community with money and smiles, trying to unite with the European Union in the West and to use the four-country cooperation mechanism of the United States, Australia, Japan and India in the Asia-Pacific region to start a “serious competition” with China –In the transatlantic cooperation, Germany and France do not want to follow the United States and have their own agenda; in the Asia-Pacific region, India is receiving a large amount of funding from China and does not want to offend China. Therefore, Australia, which is firmly in China’s sights, must make up its mind and formulate a strategy that relies primarily on itself, although its allies are important.
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