Biden echoes Trump in bid to lock out China
President seeks to cool tensions with Beijing
In the world of trade, Donald Trump’s Twitter outbursts set agendas, wildly redirected policy and became the incessant klaxon of a chaotic administration.
The then president’s mini-missives were particularly potent on China. In August 2019, he sent markets into a tailspin after announcing, via his favoured medium of tweeting, a $300-billion tariff war with Beijing. Two years and one pandemic later, the leader of the Free World has changed. The big picture hasn’t.
Katherine Tai, now-president Joe Biden’s trade representative, has been given some room to operate on her own, in contrast to her predecessor Robert Lighthizer who often seemed to be chasing orders digitally barked by Trump.
Last week, she made the first notable intervention of her tenure, outlining what her office billed as the Biden administration’s “new approach” to the U.s.-china trade relationship.
“For too long, China’s lack of adherence to global trading norms has undercut the prosperity of Americans and others around the world,” she told an event in Washington, D.C.
In what was remarkably similar to promises made by Lighthizer, Tai vowed to discuss China’s adherence, or lack thereof, to the Phase One trade deal reached under Trump in early 2020 and to once again identify specific tariffs on imports from the Asian nation that can be dropped.
She said the White House “continues to have serious concerns with China’s state-centred and non-market trade practices” and called for a reinvigorated relationship of “durable coexistence.”
Experts say it would be far-fetched to peg the approach as “new.”
Simon Lester, president of China Trade Monitor, says it was the speech of an administration under pressure to speak on trade but unwilling to overcommit itself.
“I think they’d like to avoid trade as much as they can, as long as they can,” he said. “They’re just saying, ‘We’re sticking with the old plan for now, because it’s the one we inherited, it’s the one in place,’” he added. “And we’ll see how that goes, we’ll see how China reacts.”
Chad Bown, a senior fellow at Peterson Institute for International Economics, says: “Anyone looking for a dramatic policy change toward China from the last administration will not find any evidence of it.”
Chinese state media gave the comments warm coverage with some interpreting Tai’s words as her wanting to change the conversation, according to Jennifer Hillman, of the Council on Foreign Relations.
The symbolism has certainly shifted: shortly after outlining the policy and in a clear nod to Beijing, Tai sent out a tweet in Mandarin Chinese — in which she is fluent — saying: “I hope you have watched my speech.”
While it could have been an effort to win over her counterparts, Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund, argues the tweet may have been an error. She warns Chinese officials may interpret the use of Mandarin as a signal that Tai — who was born in the U.S. to Chinese immigrant parents — is sympathetic to the “motherland.”
“I personally would have advised Tai to continue to communicate in English, just to ensure that nothing is misconceived in Beijing,” she adds.
Potential faux pas aside, the tone couldn’t have been more different from Trump. “She is being polite and diplomatic about things,” says Lester. “I would like to live in a world where that would mean something ... but I do understand that toughness, being confrontational, can sometimes get you results.”
Digging deeper, these tweaks to outward appearances disguise an administration that appears to be happy picking up where Trump left off.
“The only somewhat change from where Trump was, to where it appears Biden is, is on the issue of working with allies,” says Hillman. “That is a marked departure from Trump’s largely go-it-alone policy.”
But an elephant in the room remains: Beijing’s lack of commitment to the deal it reached with Trump. The Phase One deal included a pledge on China’s behalf to purchase an extra $200 billion of U.S. goods and services relative to 2017 levels.