US-China relations under Biden

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Biden to Face Long List of Foreign Challenges, With China No. 1
By Rick Gladstone
Nov. 7, 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/07/world/americas/Biden-foreign-policy.html

U.S. relations with China are the worst since the countries normalized ties four decades ago. America’s allies in Europe are alienated. The most important nuclear anti-proliferation treaty is about to expire with Russia. Iran is amassing enriched nuclear fuel again, and North Korea is brandishing its atomic arsenal.

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The challenge of U.S.-China relations

Nothing is more urgent, in the eyes of many experts, than reversing the downward trajectory of relations with China, the economic superpower and geopolitical rival that Mr. Trump has engaged in what many are calling a new Cold War. Disputes over trade, the South China Sea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and technology have metastasized during Mr. Trump’s term, his critics say, worsened by the president’s racist declarations that China infected the world with the coronavirus and should be held accountable.

“China is kind of the radioactive core of America’s foreign policy issues,” said Orville Schell, director of the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations.

Mr. Biden has not necessarily helped himself with his own negative depiction of China and its authoritarian leader, President Xi Jinping, during the 2020 campaign. The two were once seen as having developed a friendly relationship during the Obama years. But Mr. Biden, perhaps acting partly to counter Mr. Trump’s accusations that he would be lenient toward China, has recently called Mr. Xi a “thug.”

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[adroth]

The narrow window of opportunity that the world had to stop China's island building campaign in the SCS and WPS was during Obama's time. Had he spoken out about it, and commit US resources, it would not have happened. It would have been a rallying cry to the region, and Aquino's vocal position -- even though the PH had nothing to back up that rhetoric -- would have been vindicated.

But China knew how to read the signs. The US was exhausted by Bush's GWOT and the financial meltdown in the wake of 2008. So we are now where we are today. Playing nice to hang on to whatever we have left as we build up both our military and ECONOMIC defenses.

Trump, for one reason or another, adopted a more aggressive position. One that would have been more suited in 2014 when it mattered to the coral atolls that have been sacrificed to Chinese nationalist ambition. Did that position really have any tangible impact? That will have to be for historians to tally after all the the facts are in. But four years, at the end of the day, was a very short time to make any meaningful head way in the face of an enemy that measures its plans in decades -- and is now longer hampered by term-limits.

Only time will tell what the dawn brings.

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Duterte congratulates Biden on US presidential election victory
By: Cathrine Gonzales - Reporter / @cgonzalesINQ
INQUIRER.net / 10:02 AM November 08, 2020

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday congratulated Joseph “Joe” Biden for his victory over Donald Trump in the United States 2020 presidential elections.

“On behalf of the Filipino nation, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte wishes to extend his warm congratulations to former Vice President Joseph ‘Joe’ Biden on his election as the new President of the United States of America,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement.

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Read more: https://globalnation.inquirer.net/192013/duterte-congratulates-joe-biden-on-us-presidential-win#ixzz6dG5KTpBT
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