China policy of US: Why Biden remains in shadow of his predecessor?

A month into Biden's presidency, observers have found that the new administration's positions on a slew of China-related issues including trade, the South China Sea, pandemic control, etc., according to the statements some of its officials made, haven't shaken off much of the legacy left by the "previous guy", but is apparently being led by it.

Foreign policy starts at home. A deep look into American politics would make all of this much less unexpected.

Pre-existing institutional defects have made interests a constant theme dominating American political logic. No matter who's in office, votes are always put first. Especially in an era where politics is highly polarised, the Biden administration is unlikely to have a mind to considerably recalibrate America's China policy. Rather, procrastination becomes a pragmatic choice.

At the outset of his presidency, Biden promised to make pandemic control and economic recovery his government's top priorities. The current situation, however, suggests that both are formidable challenges. The pandemic has already taken 500,000 American lives, and when it can be brought under control remains unknown. Recently, Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, openly said that the economic outlook of the US is highly uncertain.

What if the promises can't be kept? For US politicians that always see "scapegoating" as a handy tool, China once again becomes the unlucky target. That being the case, it's not difficult to understand why Biden's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan lately "questioned" the data regarding the origin of the pandemic submitted by China to the WHO, or why Biden at the Munich Security Conference called to push back against China's economic "abuses and coercion".

With realistic concerns for the mid-term election next year and handicapped by partisan divide and anti-China hawks, the Biden administration is unknowingly playing the old "scapegoating" trick of its predecessor.

Further to that, Antony Blinken, before taking office as the new US Secretary of State, said in public that although the previous government's tactics against China were wrong, the tough approach was right. He also called for a bipartisan effort to keep China in check. In a recent interview, Biden noted that his administration was prepared for "extreme competition" with China.

In the American political arena, being a touch on China is now apparently a bipartisan consensus. Therefore, a change of leadership is just like putting old wine in a new bottle. Whoever's in power will contain China to uphold American hegemony. The only difference lies in the approach.

The past week saw intensive interactions between Europe and the US marked by events such as the Meetings of NATO Ministers of Defence, the virtual meeting of G7 leaders, and the Virtual Munich Security Conference. While mending transatlantic relations was certainly in the mind of the US government, to form a clique against China was also a major goal.

In fact, such a tactic is not fundamentally different from what the former government did to stir up confrontations between Beijing and Washington, suggesting that the Biden administration is making a similar directional error as its predecessor did in its strategic perception of China. Bonnie Kristian, a fellow at Defense Priorities, recently wrote to warn that Biden's China strategy risks going too "extreme", and is reckless, unserious, and should not be America's goal.

Notably, Chinese officials recently brought forward "three stops and three abandonments" to urge the US to adjust its current China policy and proposed three key areas where the two countries can cooperate, pointing out a pragmatic way to put China-US relations back on the right track. It is hoped that the Biden administration could see the sincerity in these messages and make sensible choices instead of following the same old wrong path of the previous government.

It is important to bear in mind that real enemy of the US has never been China, but its own politicians' paranoia.