on foreign policy, the two take surprisingly similar approaches, albeit with very different rhetoric
However, on foreign policy, the two take surprisingly similar approaches, albeit with very different rhetoric. Let’s take a closer look at the two presidents’ actions.
I wanted to refresh my memory, so I googled: “Trump, Biden, China policy.” Here are the first six results I got: “Biden backs Trump rejection of China’s South China Sea claim” (Politico); “Joe Biden is determined that China should not displace America — His China policy is looking even tougher than Donald Trump’s” (Economist); “Biden, Yellen, to Maintain Trump’s Halt in US-China Economic Talks” (Bloomberg); “Biden’s China Policy Is Emerging — and It Looks a Lot Like Trump’s” (Wall Street Journal), and “China Missing Trump Terribly as Biden Hits ‘Hard Power’ ” (Forbes).
Indeed, it seems like the two could agree on China. During the 2020 presidential campaign, Trump said Biden would be “weak” on China. Biden, determined to prove otherwise, was quick to acknowledge the Chinese treatment of Uighurs as genocide. Since then, China became Biden’s number one foreign policy subject. He recently announced that the administration looked into the Wuhan lab theory.
One of the Biden administration’s biggest challenges is how to resolve the US-China trade war. Biden announced a “bottom-down” review of China trade policy, and several talks took place last month. Trump reached a Phase One trade agreement early in 2020, but that is expected to expire by the end of the year, pushing the sides to renew the talks. In any case, it is clear that the trade war is past its peak. According to Politico, in 2020, “despite pandemic-induced political tension, tariffs and disruptions, exports to China from all 50 states increased by 18 percent.”
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