National security adviser Jake Sullivan’s recent trip to Beijing is a good sign that President Joe Biden’s administration is taking U.S.-China relations seriously. While the visit did not result in any bilateral agreements, the two leaders agreed on having a near-term phone call.
As the fifth meeting between Sullivan and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in the last two years, the visit at least shows that diplomatic channels are open. The selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Waltz, a qualified China hand, as the Democratic vice presidential candidate, moreover, seems to offer more evidence that Democrats now understand the stakes in this most pivotal bilateral relationship.
This has not always been the case. Many China watchers had the initial hope that the Biden administration would set the bilateral relationship on a more steady, predictable path after the volatile Donald Trump years when U.S.-China relations seemed to careen from crisis to crisis. However, they were substantially disappointed by the Biden administration’s first foray into China diplomacy when an early, high-level summit meeting in 2021 seemed to devolve into an acrimonious shouting match. More concretely, the Biden administration has seemingly chosen to adopt many of the hardline policies of its predecessor. The wide-ranging tariffs on Chinese exports have been maintained. Likewise, bellicose policies toward Beijing have continued to be pervasive in Biden’s Pentagon with a full embrace of Trump’s policies of “Great Power Competition” and also the “Indo-Pacific Strategy.”
To be sure, one of the major aggravating issues now in U.S.-China relations is the new global strategic environment resulting from Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Although Beijing professes neutrality and has not sent arms to Russia, Chinese diplomats still evince substantial sympathy for the Kremlin and the Biden administration has dubbed China as the foremost “enabler” of the war since its ballooning trade with Russia helps to oil Moscow’s war machine.
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