Special interview
Author: Zhai Ziqian
2021-01-28 07:00
Last update date: 2021-01-28 07:01
The U.S. presidential election has come to an end and Biden, the Democratic Party, has successfully become the new president of the United States, which means that Sino-US relations have entered a new era.
Trump has been in power for four years and relations between the two countries have become tense.
Compared with the Republican Party, the Democratic Party has always been considered to be more pro-China. Now that Biden is on the court, what is the situation?
Chen Jiaqiang, former director of the Bureau of Financial Affairs and the Treasury and adjunct professor of the School of Business Administration of the University of Science and Technology, said in an exclusive interview with "Hong Kong 01" that the U.S. government and opposition have reached a consensus that the attitude towards China must be "hard".
He clearly stated that China and the United States will maintain a state of "confrontation" for a long time in the future. It is expected that the Democratic Party will adopt a strategic rivalry (Strategic Rivalry) strategy against China and use traditional methods to force China to abide by the rules through diplomatic alliances.
The Democratic Party of the United States, Biden, officially took office as President of the United States on January 20 this year. He has rich political experience. He is best known for his eight years of vice president and the "deputy" of former U.S. President Obama.
Unlike Trump, Biden visited China as a U.S. Senator as early as 1979, and visited China as U.S. Vice President in 2011, and was received by Xi Jinping, the then Vice President of China.
The two reportedly talked for more than ten hours during their trip, and played basketball together in a high school in Dujiangyan, Sichuan. It can be said that they have a little friendship with Xi Jinping.
On February 18, 2012, the then Vice President of China Xi Jinping had an exchange with then US Vice President Biden during his visit to the United States.
(Reuters)
Anti-China has become a consensus, the Democratic Party takes the "self-reliance" line
Chen Jiaqiang believes that although Biden was indeed relatively moderate in the Obama era, as time progressed, the Obama team's attitude towards China in the latter part of the term has become more and more tough.
He believes that the U.S. government and opposition have always disliked China's strength. Anti-China is the consensus of the two parties. Both the Republican and Democratic parties in the United States do not like "No. 2 (the second economy) is so strong."
But unlike the Trump administration’s strategy of "Destabilize (disturb)" China, Chen Jiaqiang pointed out that the Democratic Party will be more "pragmatic" and adopt a strategy of strategic rivalry. "Downfall" will succeed. Secondly, seeing China's rise in technology and other fields, the United States has the consciousness of long-term competition with China. Therefore, it will vigorously develop domestic infrastructure and technology investment and continue to strengthen itself.
"The Republicans don't develop the economy too much and think that the government does not have this (leading) role, but the Democratic Party will use China as a reason to improve national capabilities!"
In fact, in the early days of his tenure, Biden has taken the lead in signing executive orders. The federal government will give priority to purchasing national products from American companies. It hopes that by increasing investment in factories and labor, it aims to make the US manufacturing industry stronger and new. Technology creates markets. Biden declared: “I don’t believe that the US manufacturing industry has lost its vitality. We will use taxpayers’ money to rebuild the United States.” It sounds good, but Chen Jiaqiang added that “self-reliance” is only the general direction of US development. Whether it can be achieved is unknown. The two parties have always been controversial, and it is difficult to reach a consensus easily in governance.
In the early days of his tenure, Biden made it clear that he would make the US manufacturing industry stronger and create a market for new technologies.
(Getty Images)
The Democratic Party will not "play cards", but the effectiveness of multilateralism is questionable
On the other hand, the Democratic Party’s relatively pragmatic approach to China will also be seen in its multilateral foreign policy.
Chen Jiaqiang believes that the United States will not "play cards" and tend to negotiate with China through alliances to force China to follow the "rules of the game," and it must not go beyond the boundaries on certain issues. "You must have the rules of the game and the bottom line. There are some areas where you can’t handle it, and you’ll have trouble. For example, in the military, the South China Sea and Taiwan issues are easy to wipe out."
Trump abandoned multilateral policy in diplomacy with China and withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as early as 2017. It is also widely believed that Biden will reuse multilateralism, rejoin the TPP, and join forces with other countries to fight China.
Although Trump has made U.S. diplomatic relations worse, Chen Jiaqiang believes that the U.S. still has the ability to lead a group of countries in the West. "The Five Eyes Alliance, plus other European countries, as well as Japan and South Korea, the U.S. has the capital to do it."
However, he raised two major issues. The first is that the United States must resolve domestic challenges. As this election campaign reflects the serious division of the two parties, it is still unknown whether Biden's four-year term will be smooth or not; There are complicated interest relationships, and each country’s requirements are different. Moreover, the emergence of Trump has made international relations more complicated. Other countries may have doubts about this ally of the United States. "Whether there will be a change in four years' time, clearly sign the treaty. It can be said or not.” Therefore, Chen Jiaqiang believes that China cannot avoid multilateral siege, but it is not facing an indestructible and strong alliance.
"It's hard to imagine that the West is consistent. Even if the United States is on behalf of the Western alliance with China, will it put an interest first?"
Chen Jiaqiang believes that the United States will join forces with other countries to fight China, but the effect remains to be seen.
(Photo by Gao Zhongming)
My Home 01 Video Biden Biden's New Deal on Sino-US Relations