President-elect Joe Biden might cooperate with China on health care and climate change, according to Eswar Prasad, a former head of the International Monetary Fund’s China division.
While the two countries still have differences, Prasad believes that Biden and China could be on the same page when it comes to health and environmental issues.
Biden said in his initial speech as president-elect that he will prioritize addressing the coronavirus pandemic. He is expected to announce a task force on Monday which will execute a plan to curb the spread of the virus.
During the campaign, Biden mentioned climate change as the “number one issue facing humanity."
“Both of these are issues that are very important to the incoming administration and certainly, on these issues at least China has to be seen as something of a partner even if not a close ally,” Prasad, now a professor at Cornell University, said during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Monday.
He explained that in terms of health care, China seems to have made a “reasonably good job” in addressing the pandemic. On the other hand, the U.S. may not be able to accomplish much globally without China’s cooperation when it comes to climate change, he added.
“So these are areas where I think the two countries might see eye-to-eye, which I hope would provide a better basis for negotiation on much more difficult areas, especially economic and trade policies where there are contentious issues almost built-in,” said Prasad.
He believes that the U.S., in general, seemed to have no “real payoff” in sustaining a cooperative relationship with China.
The professor thinks that the Biden administration may use different rhetoric in cooperating with Beijing. The president-elect is likely to fill his administration with employees who worked under former President Barack Obama, he said. Those staff may be aware of the benefits of working with China.
“I think the Biden administration will be much more strategic in its approach, recognizing that it may have to give in a few areas in order to gain broader concessions in many others,” he said.
Calm rhetoric
Another analyst, Greg Gilligan, chairman of the Beijing-based American Chamber of Commerce in China, said that US-China tensions under the Biden administration are expected to have calm rhetoric and predictability amid a rough stance on Beijing.
“The issues that remain between the U.S. and China commercial relationship don’t change with (the) change of administration,” he said.
“There’s pressure on both sides to remain fairly hawkish simply because domestic politics don’t allow for yielding the hawkish ground to someone else,” he noted.
However, CNBC said in an article that how US-China tensions would fare under the Biden administration remains unknown, especially the policy on tariffs, which have impacted businesses in both countries after China responded to U.S. duties with its own tariffs.
“Everyone needs to keep their powder dry,” said Scott Kennedy, senior advisor and Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“There is a lengthy transition to go through and a pandemic to bring under control,” he stressed. “Perhaps we’ll see a continuing ceasefire in the trade war, but it’s way too early to know if the tariffs will be removed or the actions against Huawei and others will be undone,” he added.
