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Joseph R. Biden's Administration takes office January 20 in a complex domestic and foreign policy environment, amid a raging pandemic, a prolonged economic slowdown, and the legacies of a difficult national election. In addition to ushering in a new and highly experienced team in top Administration policy positions, the 2020 election outcome places the White House and both Houses of the US Congress in the hands of the same political party for the next two years, after years of "divided government," marking a significant change in the dynamics of policy-making in Washington.
On the global scene, no bilateral relationship is likely to rank higher on the Biden foreign policy agenda than US-China relations, which have seen deepening friction on many fronts in recent years. The United States, both at the government and unofficial levels, has formalized a lengthy list of serious concerns and criticisms over developments in the PRC. For its part, China officially holds that the United States seeks to prevent the PRC's legitimate and unstoppable growth and to interfere in China's most sensitive domestic affairs. Policy decisions in both countries have produced unsettling outlooks. Nevertheless, U.S.-China economic engagement remains both deep and broad, in spite of numerous high-visibility policy measures, and discussions of a fundamental "decoupling" are, at the very least, premature.
As the Biden administration takes office, business leaders, politicians, and scholars are intensively asking what the next era of US-China relations will look like. Will the Biden Administration approach China in essentially the same ways that the Trump Administrations did, or may he revert to the China policies of the Obama Administration when he was vice president, or will he follow a different path entirely? What are the prospects for Sino-American engagement on such outstanding global concerns as climate change, pandemics, and terrorism? Is a resumption of high-level dialogues, most of which have withered in recent years, desirable and possible? Is there room for the stabilization of military relations? Can the two countries manage a far-reaching "re-set" of their troubled relationship? Or is a slower, more incremental approach to stabilizing bilateral relations more likely to achieve positive results?
In Looking Ahead to US-China Relations Under the Biden Administration, a team of experienced American scholars and practitioners will offer insight into prospects for United States relations with China in the early years of the Biden presidency, with particular emphasis on geopolitics, trade and economic relations, and national security issues.
This webinar is the conclusion of the "2020 U.S. Presidential Election Series", organized in partnership with the US-China Education Trust.
For more info, please contact event owner Baojian Sui at bsui@amchamchina.org
