The Washington Post - USA (2020-12-11)

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

Transfer of Power

BY PAUL SONNE

President-elect Joe Biden has
said he will stand up to China and
Russia, but unlike President
Trump, he has stressed the need to
work closely with allies and inter-
national organizations to present a
united front against two countries
that Washington considers its fore-
most competitors.
The Trump administration
viewed competition with China
and Russia largely through a r eal-
politik lens, christening a n ew era
in foreign policy as one of “great
power competition.” Biden is more
likely to cast the matter in ideologi-
cal terms, seeing the situation not
just as a contest among nations for
power, but also as a struggle of
like-minded democracies against
rising authoritarianism.
Biden will inherit significant
challenges. U.S. relations with Bei-
jing and Moscow are more acrimo-
nious than they have been in dec-
ades, and the president-elect has
signaled little intention to soften
Washin gton’s approach. China
possesses increasingly sophisticat-
ed technology, creating a challenge
for a U.S. government whose de-
fense budgets are likely to be con-
strained by stimulus spending.
Russia has shown an appetite for
geopolitical adventurism, which
could challenge Biden the same
way Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine
vexed the Obama administration
in 2014.
Biden is likely to reassert hu-
man rights as a key plank of his
foreign policy toward China and
Russia. Although the Trump ad-
ministration imposed sanctions
on China and Russia for human
rights abuses, and the State De-
partment issued condemnatory
statements, Trump has been large-
ly silent and at times seemed to
side with the nations’ authoritari-
an leaders.
According to John Bolton,
Trump’s former national security
adviser, in private conversations

with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the

president appeared to endorse the

use of internment camps for

U ighur Muslims in Xinjiang prov-

ince. Trump also bonded with Rus-

sian President Vladimir Putin over

their shared hatred of the news

media, despite long-standing con-

cerns about press freedom in Rus-

sia.

In a D ec. 2 interview with New

York Times columnist Thomas

Friedman, Biden said he wouldn’t

immediately undo the 25 percent

tariffs that the Trump administra-

tion placed on an array of Chinese

goods or an initial deal requiring

China to buy $200 billion in U.S.

goods and services over two years.

Biden said he would have a period

of review.

“The best China strategy, I

think, is one which gets every one

of our — o r at least what used to be

our — a llies on the same page,” he

said. “It’s going to be a major prior-

ity for me in the opening weeks of

my presidency to try to get us back

on the same page with our allies.”

The Biden administration is

also unlikely to immediately re-

verse the restrictions Trump has

imposed on Chinese technology

firms, although Biden will prob-

ably work more closely with U.S.

allies to promote alternatives to

Chinese products.

B iden has said he will focus on

ending China’s coercive economic

tactics, including intellectual

property theft and aggressive gov-

ernment subsidies for Chinese cor-

porations. He also has called for an

ambitious industrial policy in the

United States that would invest in

American infrastructure, energy,

biotech and other sectors to com-

pete with China from a position of

strength at home.

“The most decisive factor in the

economic competition with China

is U.S. domestic policy,” Kurt

Campbell, a top State Department

official during the Obama admin-

istr ation, and Jake Sullivan,

Biden’s incoming national security

THE BIDEN AGENDA RUSSIA AND CHINA

To counter China and

Russia, U.S. will work

to strengthen alliances

adviser, wrote in a 2019 article in

Foreign Affairs magazine. They

said that the notion of a new

“ Sputnik moment” may be over-

stating the point, but that the Unit-

ed States must compete with Chi-

na by investing in American eco-

nomic and technological leader-

ship at home.

On Russia, Biden will enter of-

fice with a l ittle more than two

weeks until the expiration of New

START, a t reaty between Washing-

ton and Moscow that limits stra-

tegic nuclear arms. Where Trump

sought to negotiate a new accord,

Biden has said he will sign a five-

year extension of New START with

Putin, and then pursue other arms-

control initiatives with Russia.

Biden has also suggested chang-

ing U.S. nuclear doctrine to state

that the sole purpose of American

nuclear weapons is to deter or re-

spond to a n uclear attack by an

adversary, a departure from the

current U.S. nuclear doctrine that

probably would meet opposition

from parts of the U.S. military and

Republican lawmakers in Con-

gress. President Barack Obama

considered a similar “no first use”

doctrine at the end of his adminis-

tration but ultimately backed off.

Unlike Trump, who regularly

denigrated NATO, Biden for dec-

ades has been a s trong proponent

of the alliance and will seek to

reestablish trust with European

allies and continue to shore up

NATO’s defenses against Russia.

“The Kremlin fears a strong

NATO, the most effective political-

military alliance in modern his-

tory. To counter Russian aggres-

sion, we must keep the alliance’s

military capabilities sharp while

also expanding its capacity to take

on nontraditional threats, such as

weaponized corruption, disinfor-

mati on, and cybertheft,” Biden

wrote in a January article in For-

eign Affairs. “We must impose real

costs on Russia for its violations of

international norms and stand

with Russian civil society, which

has bravely stood up time and

again against President Vladimir

Putin’s kleptocratic authoritarian

system.”

B iden is also likely to reengage

in Ukraine, where as vice president

he promoted anti-corruption and

pro-democracy movements in the

country in the face of pushback

from neighboring Russia. Similar-

ly, he is likely to be more vocal than

Trump has been in supporting pro-

democracy struggles against au-

thoritarianism in places such as

Belarus and Hong Kong.

Broadly speaking, the Biden ad-

ministration is expected to contin-

ue the U.S. military’s focus on pr e-

paring for possible conflict with

China or Russia. But with the need

for large government stimulus

packages durin g the coronavirus

pandemic, the Pentagon may not

enjoy the escalating budgets it has

experienced during the Trump ad-

ministration. The need to make

cuts and hard choices could roll

back parts of a 30-year moderniza-

tion of the U.S. nuclear forces start-

ed under Obama.

[email protected]

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The Biden Agenda:

Foreign policy

President-elect Joe Biden is

preparing to reverse Trump

administration policies with

an ambitious Day One t o-do

list. The Washington Post will

be examining Biden’s

approach to covid-19, climate

change, economic policy and

social justice in coming

weeks. Past: Immigration.

 Read more about his

foreign policy agenda o nline

now at: wapo.st/biden-

foreignpolicy

Russian President

Vladimir Putin and

Chinese President Xi

Jinping appear at the

Conference on Interaction

and Confidence-Building

Measures in Asia in 20 14.

Hosted by The Post’s Geoffrey Fowler

on Tuesday, Dec. 15 at 1 2:15 p.m. ET

Watch Live: wapo.st/futu reof workdec

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