Of course, the launch of the vaccine in the United States was not smooth. But … it could be worse. Just look at Europe.
The trade issue is more nuanced, officials said. They emphasized that there would be adjustments to China’s Trump-era trade policy, which “will depend on internal consultations between governments and consultations with partners in Europe and Asia”. But they noted that the tariffs set by the previous government will remain for the time being while the policy is being revised.
“In trade, we kept the tariffs set in recent years not because we think the trade war was particularly successful, but because we have to [proceed] very carefully, in consultation with partners and allies, [and] work through the sources of leverage that we have on the economic front, ”said one of the authorities.
More broadly, Biden and his national security advisers believe that the biggest security challenges will emerge from the so-called competition of great powers between the United States, China and Russia. As one of the officials told reporters on Wednesday, the “lion’s share” of the story will be written in the region.
To that end, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has expanded the National Security Council unit that coordinates US policy towards the Asia-Pacific region. He appointed Kurt Campbell to oversee this team, which will aim to weave together various dimensions of US policy – technology, trade, human rights, etc. – to contain China’s “exercise of acute power” against its neighbors, said one of the officials. The other official said that while Trump has raised the possibility of diminishing the US presence in Asia-Pacific, and although a review of the global force’s stance is underway, “it is unlikely” that the Biden government will follow that path.
“In general, there has been a sense of change in China in the past four to five years,” said the official. “It is a pattern of behavior that causes concern among [U.S.] friends and partners. ”The official pointed to Chinese incursions along the border with India, economic attacks against Australia and South Korea and provocations against Taiwan and the South China Sea.
“The challenges are difficult, but we have been here before,” added the official. “There were periods in the past when Asia excluded us and thought we were losing count.” But the official said the government was optimistic that it could ultimately play a strong role in the region and find areas where the United States could work with China. One of the most important and complicated areas is building cooperation around climate change.
“The issues of intellectual property theft and access to markets, the South China Sea … those issues will never be exchanged for anything having to do with the climate,” said climate secretary John Kerry last month. “But the climate is a critical autonomous issue that we have to deal with, in the sense that China is responsible for 30% of the world’s emissions”.