Trump’s last-minute moves against China complicate Biden’s agenda

The Trump administration cast its barrage of moves against Beijing, in its waning days, as necessary to stand up to China’s authoritarian leadership.

Among its final acts, the administration declared that Beijing was committing genocide against Uighurs and other Muslims in a far western region. It held a video conference between a senior U.S. envoy and the president of Taiwan, the selfruled island claimed by Beijing. And it jettisoned long-standing guidelines limiting exchanges with Taiwanese officials.

But the decision to push through significant foreign policy measures so quickly — and during a time of turmoil in Washington — risks politicizing the issues and undermining their ability to gain global traction.

While some of the decisions were in the making for months, the timing of their rollout makes them easy to dismiss. To Beijing, the moves were a last-ditch effort by the departing administration to needle China’s ruling Communist Party. And they could potentially box in President Joe Biden by forcing him to either look weak on China by reversing the moves or incur Beijing’s wrath.

In the short term, these moves by the Trump administration may force the issues to the front of Biden’s China agenda, regardless of his own priorities. This complicates the new administration’s plans to maintain a combative stance on China over human rights and other issues while finding areas to cooperate and stabilize Washington’s spiraling relationship with Beijing.

Beijing is likely to pressure Biden to reverse at least some of the Trump administration’s decisions as a condition of resuming talks on other issues. But reversing any decision too quickly could also send a signal to the Chinese leadership that all of the Trump administration’s recent moves are on the table.