SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A23
During his four years in office, President
Donald Trump tried to execute a sharp
pivot in U.S. policy toward China, aban-
doning a 45-year-old foreign policy con-
sensus aimed at persuading China to
become more like the West. His adminis-
tration’s strategy checking Chinese mili-
tary and economic expansion through sanctions and
tariffs was a sensible response to the regime of Xi
Jinping. But the erratic and sometimes clumsy imple-
mentation by Trump’s dysfunctional mix of GOP hawks
and MAGA aides prevented it from gaining broad
acceptance in Washington or around the world.
To the surprise of many in Washington and Beijing,
the Biden administration has largely followed Trump’s
lead, keeping U.S. policy toward China on a more
competitive — if not confrontational — footing, an
approach now favored, in varying degrees, by lawmak-ers in both parties and likely to last as long as China
continues its great leap backward. Restraining China is
now a multi-administration, bipartisan strategy that
stands among the most important foreign policy
adjustments since the end of the Cold War.
If Trump’s China hands were an improbable team of
rivals, President Biden’s are center-left internationalists
who have worked together for years and believe that
unless the United States acts more assertively, China
will soon dominate the Asia-Pacific region and alter the
world order to suit its interests. This group — let’s call
them the “competitors” — includes most of the top
U.S. foreign policy figures: Secretary of State Antony
Blinken; national security adviser Jake Sullivan; the
National Security Council’s Indo-Pacific coordinator,
Kurt Campbell; the NSC’s senior director for China and
Taiwan, Laura Rosenberger; and key officials at the
Pentagon and State Department.That mind-set isn’t unanimous. Scattered through
the government are officials — let’s call them the
“engagers” — who are determined to resist the new
approach. Still, Biden is regarded to be squarely on the
competitors’ team, having tapped so many of them to
oversee his foreign policy. “The competitors understand
that the United States is in a prolonged competition
with China that we have to win but could lose,” said
Thomas Wright, a senior fellow at the Brookings
Institution. “They feel a sense of urgency and the need
to make big plays to shape the strategic environment,
even if it’s difficult. It’s not enough just to maintain the
status quo — China’s not standing still, and neither can
the United States.”
Since Xi came to power in late 2012, the Chinese
Communist Party has been expanding its military,
intensifying internal repression and taking steps to
SEE THE OPINIONS ESSAY ON A24by Josh RoginBiden doesn’t want to change China.He wants to beat it.the opinions essayDAREN LIN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST