Story:
The United States might indeed have consolidated its power and shored up Asia-Pacific alliances under the Biden administration, but Beijing's influence will continue to grow, according to observers in China.
China viewed its strategic rivalry with the US as a long-term battle, and had been able to consolidate its status in key areas of the global economy, they noted.
Delivering his final foreign policy speech as US president yesterday, Joe Biden asserted that America was in a better strategic position in the long-term competition with China than when he took office in 2021. On China's current course, they will never surpass us, he said, citing the latest predictions.
We've made partnerships stronger and created new partnerships to challenge China's aggressive behaviour and to rebalance power in the region, he said.
According to Zhu Feng, dean of Nanjing University's school of international studies, Biden chose to focus on successes over China as some of his other foreign policy decisions – including on the Russia-Ukraine war and Middle East conflict – had come under fire.
The Biden administration believes that his most outstanding diplomatic achievement in his four years in office is the containment and suppression of China's rise, Zhu said.
He said the US was in a clear leading position in terms of strategic power compared to China, with stronger alliances in the Asia-Pacific region under multilateral frameworks such as Aukus and the Quad.
Even as [Donald] Trump takes office, the US will still maintain its leading strategic capability over China. There's no illusion that the strategic advantage over China will end in the short to medium term, no matter who is in power, Zhu added.
But China will not admit defeat, given its long-term view of the rivalry, Zhu suggested.
Rather, Zhu said, China was likely to continue to deepen cooperation with the Global South and enhance strategic resilience to soften the US suppression … and be able to make an effective response.
The foreign ministry yesterday said ties with the US had remained stable on the whole, despite ups and downs.
At the same time, China stood firm by its principles … and responded to the US' wrong actions with resolute countermeasures, spokesman Guo Jiakun said.
Dylan Loh, assistant professor of foreign policy at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said Biden had clearly strengthened US relations with partners but it was difficult to judge which side was in a stronger strategic position. This was because the problems facing China were not necessarily the direct result of Biden's policies and could even be attributed to Beijing's own foreign policy.
Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University in Beijing, was less in agreement with Biden's claims.
The outgoing president's focus on successes over China and strong ties with US partners stemmed from worries that Trump might undermine Washington's relations with its allies, according to Wang.
China's strategic position was not defined by the US, he said. Moreover, the US may be rallying its allies to contain Beijing, but that did not mean China had been weakened. China's status in areas like the global value and supply chains had instead risen, Wang noted.
Publication Date: 2025/01/15
Publication Type: Print
Publication: SCMP