Alaska Ice Cream, Biden takes on China

A few weeks ago the President of the United States Joe biden gave a special message a year after the start of what has become the COVID-19 tragedy in the country, with more than 520,000 dead. To get an idea of ​​the significance of this number, it is ten times the number of deaths suffered by the United States in the Vietnam War. Based on the mass vaccination that was launched, Biden wished that on July 4, his compatriots could celebrate Independence Day together.

Biden also questioned the persecution Asian Americans face in the country. Recently, a gunman murdered eight Asian Americans in Atlanta. Biden demanded that these attacks cease because they are “anti-American.”

Both questions point, indirectly because Biden was not explicit, to his predecessor Donald Trump: for his handling of the pandemic and for stigmatizing China until his farewell speech to the presidency with his accusation that the The impact of the coronavirus was due to the “Chinese virus” and hold it responsible for the economic woes Americans have suffered in recent decades.

This behavior of Biden for many reflects a clear look at the direction the United States will now take, which would be a radical departure from Trump. In January, Biden said, “We can make America, again, the main force for good in the world.” By saying “still” and “force of good”, implicitly, Biden points out that the years under Trump have been “abnormal” for the country and that he has moved away from positive behavior for the whole world.

The foreign policy that Biden intends to pursue thus seeks to return to rely on the country’s traditional allies – mainly Europe and Japan – who have been abandoned by Trump. Thus, a large part of analysts see Biden as a leadership of the United States that would try to be the world leader of a liberal world order as it is traditionally claimed to be.

But Biden asserted that such a return was essential to confront authoritarianism, immediately mentioning China and Russia. Thus, it reflects that the liberal and multilateral character of the world leadership it seeks to establish will not apply to these countries.

As for Russia, Biden made a big impact by accusing Putin of being a ‘murderer’ and for interfering in the US elections with cyber attacks to promote Trump’s re-election. With this attitude, Biden totally reversed Trump’s treatment of Russia.. However, as far as China is concerned, the signs are of a continuation of Trump’s policies.

Last week in Alaska, delegations from the two countries met, the first with the participation of the Biden administration, in such a tense atmosphere that the media pointed out that there was no fraternization between them. As this distancing was expected by both parties, it is understood that this framework sets the tone for the bilateral agreement between the two great powers in the world.

While Trump’s attitude towards China during his last year in office has had several face-to-face confrontations, the Chinese government since the start of the presidential feud had little hope that there would be any big changes with Biden. China, likewise, has left the doors open somewhat … But Biden has already shown that his treatment will be no less harsh, although the paths may be different.

In Asia, although Trump has pressured Japan and South Korea to cover some of the military spending that the United States has been responsible for regional security since World War II, his radical stance has then was combined with acts of rapprochement, seeking to add to India. and Australia in a regional group that isolates China. Something similar was seen in Trump’s deal with Europe. At first, there were criticisms of the concentration of US payment of NATO spending and Trump’s rejection of the G-7. But then Trump announced his plan to establish an enlarged G-7 or G-Democratic, again, in an effort to keep China out.

The Biden administration shows following these lines. At the meeting in frigid Alaska it was more than clear …

The United States has targeted China with hot topics (Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Taiwan), in addition to trade disputes. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “Beijing is a threat to global stability,” and has embarked on a tour to support Asian alliances, while the North American country has also stepped forward. spokesperson for the problems that Canada and Australia impose on China. In addition, just before Wednesday’s meeting, the State Department announced sanctions against 24 Chinese officials it accuses of being involved in the dismantling of democracy in Hong Kong.

The Chinese delegation also responded stiffly. Communist Party of China Central Committee Foreign Relations Commission bureau director Yang Jiechi accused the United States of human rights hypocrisy and pointed to historic Americans of foreign intervention.

Further, referring to the recent racial movement, he criticized his treatment of minorities and said the United States must first clean up its house before criticizing others. “The United States does not represent international public opinion and neither does the Western world,” Yang said. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi followed Yang’s words, offering a more conciliatory tone, recognizing Blinken and Sullivan as “true friends of the Chinese people.”

According to Foreign Policy China analyst Michael Hirsh, the Biden administration “is preparing for a long-term battle of wills with little hope of rapprochement.” In this is manifested a legacy of Trump who based his confrontation with China on a bipartisan consensus in Congress and among strategic thinkers in the United States, especially the military. Moreover, with his attack and rhetoric, Trump has already come before the emergence of the pandemic, convincing his compatriots of his negative view of China.

According to a recent Gallup poll, 45% of Americans see China as the country’s “greatest enemy”, a 23% increase from the previous year, while the poll found that only 20% had a favorable opinion. from China. In the editorial, the Washington Post celebrated that Biden had adopted the “appropriate harsh tone to restore relations to the necessary form with China” and for telling Chinese leader Xi Jinping to his face that he was wrong if he believed that the United States was declining.

However, as with Trump, the China-U.S. Confrontation has limits due to the two’s need for mutual cooperation to deal with global issues that affect the entire world. In addition to the obvious containment of pandemics like the current pandemic, climate change continues to be a major problem.

Few say that China and the United States are in the middle of the cold war, although they recognize that there are big differences with what was observed after WWII until the fall of the Soviet Union. Others, on the other hand, point out that nothing was more suitable for the meeting than the chosen location: the freezing temperatures of Alaska.