Joe Biden’s long history with China is unlikely to mend Trump-era rift
Hindustan TimesUnlike Donald Trump, whom Chinese officials had little knowledge of before he took office, Joe Biden is well known in Beijing. Yet his stance toward the world’s second-largest economy hardened over the past decade: On the campaign trail, he blasted Beijing for its actions in Hong Kong, dubbed its policies toward Muslim minorities in the western region of Xinjiang “unconscionable” and called the Chinese president a “thug.” Biden’s transformation on China mirrored a broader shift in Washington, where a bipartisan consensus began to see Beijing as a threat to the US-led world order as Trump imposed punitive tariffs on Chinese goods and took action on companies from Huawei Technologies Co. to Bytedance Ltd., the creator of TikTok. “Biden may try to improve relations with allies, and band together to try to suppress China,” said He Weiwen, a former official at the Chinese consulates in San Fransisco and New York. Not many specifics “Biden’s stance on Taiwan, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and the South China Sea is likely to be consistent with Trump,” said Shi Yinhong, director of the Center on American Studies at Renmin University of China and an adviser to the Chinese government. He’s also said little about whether he’d allow Huawei to buy cutting edge chips again or let TikTok access the data of American users, much less embrace the Trump administration’s “Clean Network” program to convince allies to swear off communications networks involving Chinese companies and equipment.