WAR BY OTHER MEANS

Ideological tussle, geopolitical rivalry and technological competition will dominate US-China relations in the foreseeable future

- AJISH P. JOY

WHEN JOE BIDEN addressed his first news conference as president on March 25, it took a while before he was asked a question on China. The president did not mince words. “China wants to become the leading country in the world, the wealthiest country in the world, and the most powerful country in the world. But that is not going to happen on my watch,” he said.

Biden won the presidential race by running as the antithesis of Donald Trump. But on China, his playbook is remarkably similar to that of Trump’s. The Biden administration has made it clear that its China policy will be marked by “stiff competition” across sectors. As President Xi Jinping seems to have cemented his hold over party and government, there are three broad areas where US-China competition will be felt the most: ideology, technology and geopolitics. Jean-Pierre Cabestan, Chinese expert at Hong Kong Baptist University, said the US and China were already in a cold war. “There is fierce technological competition and geostrategic and ideological rivalries. But this will be a new type of cold war because of the level of interdependence between China and the west,” he said.

On the ideological front, Biden will host a virtual ‘Summit for Democracy’ on December 9 and 10, bringing together leaders from around 100 countries. For the US, it is important to show that the existing system of democratic capitalism still works. The financial crisis of 2008, the chaotic Trump presidency and the growing polarisation within American politics have made Biden’s hand weaker, while China’s economic growth and political stability have shown that democracy is not a prerequisite for development.