China sends belated congratulations to Joe Biden for his presidential win. Biden is expected to make policy changes involving China.
China was reportedly avoiding becoming among the group that congratulated Biden when he turned out as the winner of the U.S. presidential election.
“We respect the choice of the American people,” said a foreign ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin. “We congratulate Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris.”
Wang did not have any reason for the delay but explained, “the result will be confirmed according to U.S. laws and procedures.”
According to political analysts, Biden may attempt to resume cooperation with China on climate change, Iran, North Korea, and the coronavirus and pursue a more traditional policy.
However, they also expect changes due to heightened frustration with China's trade and human rights record and spying accusations.
“A tough stance on China has broad support across the U.S. political spectrum,” Louis Kuijs of Oxford Economics said in a report this week. “Biden’s own pronouncements and policy program suggest he will continue to try to maintain the U.S. technological lead and to attract manufacturing activity.”
Calmer rhetoric
Analysts believe 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,” said Greg Gilligan, chairman of the Beijing-based American Chamber of Commerce in China.
“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.
According to analysts, a Biden administration would be able to negotiate with U.S. allies more effectively than Trump to come up with a more unified plan regarding its relations with China. Both Republicans and Democrats agree that there must be a tougher policy against the Communist Party-led country.
President-elect Joe Biden said in his initial speech that he would prioritize addressing the coronavirus pandemic and did not mention China.
Biden thinks “economic security is national security,” according to his foreign policy plan.
“The United States does need to get tough with China,” Biden wrote earlier this year in a “Foreign Affairs” article titled “Why America Must Lead Again: Rescuing U.S. Foreign Policy After Trump.”
“If China has its way, it will keep robbing the United States and American companies of their technology and intellectual property. It will also keep using subsidies to give its state-owned enterprises an unfair advantage — and a leg up on dominating the technologies and industries of the future,” he wrote.
