Presumptive Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden
Joe Biden The timeline for the Republican Party’s Obama investigation report slips as the president pays attention to Hillicon Valley subpoenas: House panel quizzes tech CEOs during long-awaited antikopoly hearing TikTok to make public the code as it rejects ‘disinformation’ | Intel House panel expands access to evidence of foreign disinformation Editorial board of Texas’ leading newspaper warns Trump is losing support due to pandemic MORE is articulating an agenda aimed at giving the United States a competitive advantage over China and cracking down on Beijing’s abuses, taking offense at President Trump
Donald John Trump Governor Approval Rates Drop As COVID-19 Cases Rise Gohmert Says He Will Take Hydroxychloroquine As Treatment For Virginia Governor COVID-19, Senators Seek CDC Help With Coronavirus Outbreak In Center immigration detention MORE on a topic on which the incumbent has focused on his reelection effort.
Biden has yet to deliver a full speech on foreign policy or China, but has spread his political proposals through comments on his internal agenda and public statements about his plans for the economy, human rights and the environment.
Earlier this month, Biden proposed new policies aimed at cracking down on China’s competitive economic advantages, and said he would take steps to tackle Beijing’s human rights abuses regarding Hong Kong and the camps in the country’s region. Xinjiang.
His efforts come at a time when Trump has tried to show Biden so weak about China as he intensifies his bid for reelection by emphasizing his administration’s confrontational approach to China in matters of trade, intellectual property theft, and Other themes.
“The fundamental argument the campaign makes is that, under Trump, China’s position is stronger while the United States has weakened,” said Ely Ratner, who served as Biden’s deputy national security adviser during the Obama administration. from 2015 to 2017..
“This notion of positioning the United States to outperform China is at the core of the vice president’s agenda,” added Ratner.
Despite deep political divisions in the United States, there is broad support in Washington and across the country to hold China accountable for its behavior, including unfair business practices and cyber theft.
The latest Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll poll found that 53 percent of voters see China as an enemy, and 70 percent say the country is responsible for creating new global tensions. More than 60 percent of voters say the United States should take steps to hold China accountable for its handling of the coronavirus and for exploiting America’s trade policies.
Trump has tried to take advantage of that appetite for tough policy in China by imposing tariffs on Beijing to force the country’s hand in trade negotiations. The Trump administration recently enacted a punishment on China for allegations of espionage and human rights abuses, and the president has tried to blame China for the pain caused by the coronavirus outbreak as his own disapproval rate increases.
Former Obama administration officials hope Biden will continue to treat China as a strategic competitor, as Trump has.
“The similarity is an acknowledgment that strategic competence is the overall right framework for the relationship,” said Evan Medeiros, a professor of Asian studies at Georgetown University and a former senior director of the Obama National Security Council for Asia.
But former Obama administration officials say they expect Biden to take a less open approach to confrontation with Beijing.
Medeiros speculated that a Biden administration would be open but not “overly supportive” of cooperation with China and would ensure that a dialogue is rebuilt, but that Beijing does not use it to play for time or advantage.
Biden has proposed new policies aimed at cracking down on China’s competitive economic advantages. The former vice president says he will take steps to strengthen the supply chain so that the United States does not depend on China for critical products such as drugs and medical equipment.
Biden says he is committed to ensuring that government contracts go to American companies and will crack down on companies that label their products as made in the United States when they were actually made elsewhere.
And Biden has proposed a $ 300 billion federal investment in research and development, warning that China is on track to overtake the United States in cutting-edge technologies. He says any company that received federal research funding must produce its products in the United States.
The former vice president also pledges to take “aggressive trade enforcement” measures against China for currency manipulation or other unfair trade practices.
Biden’s strategy toward China would hinge on strengthening U.S. alliances that he says have been undermined by Trump and investing nationally in education, emerging technology and infrastructure to improve competitiveness, allies say.
“We need to bring our allies and partners together rather than alienate them to meet some of the challenges China poses,” said Anthony Blinken, head of foreign policy for the Biden campaign, in a speech in early July at the Hudson Institute.
The Trump campaign has invested heavily in China-focused ads, criticizing the former vice president as “Beijing Biden” for his work on previous trade deals and drawing attention to Hunter Biden’s business in the country. The president’s campaign believes these messages are particularly important in getting them home in key states like Pennsylvania.
In a Rose Garden speech earlier this month, Trump attacked Biden for his support of China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, for his defense of the Paris climate deal and for his opposition to the Trump administration’s tariffs. , declaring Biden’s political career as a “gift to the Chinese Communist Party”.
A New York Times-Siena College poll released in late June found that voters in the battlefield states of Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania trust Trump about Biden to better manage China.
But the latest Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll poll found that, nationally, Biden is a bit more trustworthy than Trump about who would do a better job of managing relations with China. Fifty-four percent said Biden, compared to 46 percent for Trump.
“Politically, Biden is doing a little worse than the horse race gap, so China is not helping or hurting him significantly,” said Harvard chief pollster CAPS-Harris. Mark Penn
Mark PennBiden has a 10-point lead over Trump: “It’s the virus, stupid.” Poll: Most say they are concerned about rising crime in US cities. 79 percent say they support the national mandate. of facial mask: survey MORE. “Because China is not a major issue, it is not affecting horse racing, although the underlying antipathy towards China suggests some potential for it to grow in importance and the president using it as a possible wedge problem.”
China is well below the list of issues that are a priority for voters at the moment. Campaigns focus on coronaviruses, the economy, and racial unrest.
But as the November election approaches, the Biden campaign plans to curb Trump’s attacks, alleging that the president’s trade negotiations with China have hurt American manufacturers and farmers, who have had to contend with retaliatory tariffs.
The campaign aims to argue that the Republican Party’s tax cuts in 2017 incentivized large corporations to move jobs and production abroad.
Biden’s campaign says Trump’s threats against China have been hollow and has failed to hold China accountable for its trade and human rights abuses.
And Biden will link Trump’s coronavirus response to China, arguing that the president was shaken in the early days and even praised Beijing’s response when the virus escaped from Wuhan and infected the rest of the world. Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee have put money behind five different ads alleging that Trump was “played” by China.
Biden campaign spokesman Michael Gwin told media reports that Beijing considers Trump’s leadership to be destabilizing in the United States and wants him for a second term.
“At every step of his presidency, Donald Trump has put China first and the United States last, selling our workers and farmers for a hollow trade deal, cheerfully praising President Xi when COVID-19 spread out of control and condoned the Chinese government’s crackdown on basic rights in Hong Kong and its concentration camps in Xinjiang, ”said Gwin.
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