China-U.S.-EU Relations in Transition

HAVING promised to “build back better,” the Biden administration now faces two challenges as it sets out to revamp the country’s battered international image in the wake of its predecessor’s blunders. They are: to recalibrate the U.S.’s China policy and to regain the trust and confidence of its European allies.

- CUI HONGJIAN

As the future trajectories of U.S. relations with China and the EU will have a considerable impact on the international landscape, whether or not the Biden administration can steer these relations out of turbulence to greater constructiveness and predictability will attest to the new administration’s competence.

Stabilize and Revamp

Cognizance of Trump’s foreign policy as the shortest route to a dead end should be the starting point of the Biden administration’s formulation of foreign policy, especially that relating to China and the EU. Under the pretext of national security concerns, the Trump administration embarked on an all-out containment campaign against China that encompassed politics, security, diplomacy, trade, investment, and technology. This onslaught on all fronts escalated tensions between the two countries and was detrimental to America’s own security and economic interests. It also impinged on the international system as a whole.

The EU, an important U.S. ally, also suffered political bullying, trade sanctions, and security coercion at the hands of the world’s largest economy. No vestige of the once solid alliance and interdependence could be seen in U.S.-EU relations during the Trump period. To reshape the U.S.’s diplomatic image, the Biden government must expunge the trademark unpredictability and capriciousness of its predecessor’s foreign policy. Clearly aware of this, both on the campaign trail and after the election, Biden’s team intimated its intention to moderate the confrontational tone of the China policy, rebuild the U.S.’s alliance with Europe, and override Trump’s other misguided actions by rejoining the Paris Agreement and the WHO.