No single foreign policy topic is more critical to the world than the future of U.S.-China relations. When President Joe Biden delivered his acceptance speech on November 7, he promised to rebuild the U.S.’s multilateral alliances. Unsurprisingly, one of his first actions in office was to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement. But, what’s in store for relations with China?
There is no denying that U.S.-China relations have suffered serious damage over the past four years. Tensions between the two states are exacerbated by the U.S.’s insistence that China unabashedly disregards human rights in pursuit of world domination and China’s belief that the U.S. is hindering its peoples’ pursuit of a better future.
Observers of U.S.-China relations are keeping a close eye on what changes the Biden administration may bring to the deteriorating relationship, well aware that it was trapped in a vicious downward cycle under former President Donald Trump P’00. While Biden’s stance toward China is not expected to be as hostile as Trump’s, we should expect continuing areas of tension between the two superpowers. Throughout his campaign, Biden pledged to stand up to China while simultaneously seeking to build common ground.
Biden delivers his first foreign policy speech on February 4. Photo courtesy of The Nation
Biden is no stranger to China and has boasted that he has spent more time with Chinese President Xi Jinping than any other world leader. However, Biden’s stance toward China has hardened. During the presidential campaign in February 2020, Biden said that Jinping “is a guy who doesn’t have a [democratic] bone in his body.”
There are a number of points of contention between China and the U.S., namely the ongoing trade war, Chinese trade practices, and the country’s history of intellectual theft. But, the greatest issue is China’s egregious human rights violations in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Taiwan — these issues were largely unaddressed by the Trump administration, but we can expect Biden to approach them with hard-line policies.
According to BBC News, China has detained around one million Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic group in Xinjiang, with the intention of forcing them to assimiliate into Chinese society. Beyond the estimated 350 detention camps that the Chinese government constructed to house the Uighur people, those living in the Xinjiang region are under constant surveillance.
Many governments have expressed concerns. The U.S. State Department said, “These actions undermine China’s claim to be a rule of law society, run contrary to China’s human rights commitments, and hinder its attempts to build a more transparent and effective justice system.”
The European Union echoed this sentiment, saying “These cases are part of a worrying trend and call into question China’s respect for the rule of law and for its international human rights obligations, not least freedom of speech.” However, these institutions have not proposed a clear course of action in response to China’s reprehensible human rights abuses.
In the past, China has been largely successful in stifling criticism, as most other countries are reluctant to oppose China out of fear of losing a powerful trading partner. This concern has fueled the world’s disregard for China’s human rights violations.
In order to combat China’s indifference for human rights, Biden must bring together U.S. allies and spearhead a coalition to promote access to independent media and unbiased information in China. The global community should also strive to engage with Chinese activists without putting them in danger. This could include meeting with Chinese dissidents living in allied or partner countries to raise awareness about unlawfully imprisoned activists and lobby for their release. This would not only put pressure on China to respond but also shine a spotlight on the country’s human rights violations. This united approach could also reassert the U.S. and its allies’ influence in the Pacific, which might compel China to agree to terms of cooperation and even spark an opportunity for the U.S. and China to work together.
U.S.-China relations will be fraught with tensions. Biden will need to take a strong stance toward China while also finding areas of common ground. Fortunately, Biden has extensive foreign policy experience, which should allow him to effectively navigate this thorny relationship.
