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Opinion | Under Biden, America’s China policy will be tough without being recklessly provocative
- Relations will remain difficult, given widespread US antagonism towards China
- But the relationship will be better managed – Biden will be more open to areas of cooperation, such as on climate change, and less inclined to use America’s China policy as a prop to further a domestic agenda
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The American voter fired Donald Trump on November 3. Come January 20, 2021, shortly after noon, America will have a new president and its first female vice-president, Kamala Harris.
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As much as one might hope that this development would usher in efforts by both Beijing and Washington to improve bilateral ties, this is unlikely for two reasons. One is that the post-election political and economic conditions in America are unlikely to be hospitable to such moves.
The other reason is that China’s recently concluded fifth plenary session of the Central Committee in Beijing signalled one thing clearly – Beijing does not intend to alter course either domestically or in terms of foreign policy in ways that would energise Washington to reciprocate.
Focusing on the United States, Joe Biden received more popular votes than any other presidential candidate in American history, as Donald Trump received the second most popular votes in history and more votes than he did in his 2016 race against Hillary Clinton. In short, Trump will be gone from the White House, but Trumpism is not a spent political force.
The stark reality is that public opinion pollsters have consistently underestimated the depth of the cultural, urban-rural divide in America, and the deeply embedded distrust of experts, globalisation, big-city and suburban cosmopolitan values, and everything associated with “socialism”.
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Trump supporters protest Biden’s presidential victory
Trump supporters protest Biden’s presidential victory
This tendency to underestimate the force of Trumpism is seen in the degree to which opinion polls anticipated a Biden win that would be bigger, broader and deeper than the actual impressive victory. Democratic Party leaders had expected a party leadership shift in the US Senate, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats expressed optimism that they would add a number of seats to their current majority in the House of Representatives.
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