By YOSSI
MEKELBERG
For nearly two months following his inauguration, things were progressing according to plan for new American President Joe Biden. After a shaky transition period, Biden’s early days in the White House were mostly concerned with repairing the damage caused by his predecessor as he embarked on a healing process at home and began mending fences with the international community. However, 60 days into Biden’s administration, clouds are gathering over Washington’s relations with Beijing and Moscow.
This raises these questions: Is it a case of Biden attempting to assert himself as a principled leader who is not scared to position the US as a champion of liberal-democratic values even if it means confrontation with China and Russia? Or, in a world of superpower competition, is a clash between the US and those two powers inevitable, with the recent war of words simply a manifestation of this difficult-to-bridge conflict of interests and values?
The answer to both these questions is essentially in the affirmative. As the hopeful post-Cold War days of a global march toward democracy have long faded away — and, on reflection, such hopes were the result of sheer naivety and wishful thinking — the US and its allies must face a different reality. For many years the West generally, and the US in particular, has conflated the transition toward capitalism with a turn toward liberal democracy. Russia and China have never subscribed to this logic, nor had much respect for human rights. If, in the early post-Cold War era, there was some pretense of democracy, at least in post-communist Russia, not much remains of it 30 years on. Both Russia and China have taken an overt and bold turn toward authoritarianism, brutally suppressing political rivals and ethnic minorities while consolidating their influence abroad.
During his election campaign, Biden pledged to focus on domestic issues first; but no American president can escape the turbulent waters of foreign affairs. After all, the separation between domestic and foreign policy, especially for a political, economic and military power, is artificial to begin with.
The renewal of America’s close relations with Western liberal democracies allows him to confront Beijing and Moscow more effectively
In the aftermath of the previous administration’s stance, the reorientation of foreign policy that Biden has brought about in terms of returning to multilateralism and embarking on repairing relationships with allies, particularly within the EU and NATO — in other words the renewal of America’s close relations with Western liberal democracies — allows him to confront China and Russia more effectively. Speaking to the online Munich Security Conference in February, he didn’t mince his words, calling on America’s allies in Europe and Asia to “prepare together for long-term strategic competition with China,” through working together “to secure the peace and defend our shared values and advance our prosperity.”
As far as China was concerned, he drew a line in the sand by rallying his allies to accept stiff competition, but not under rules set by Beijing. The message was clear: He is not Donald Trump when it comes to style and civility — or the lack of it in Trump’s case — but will prove to be a tougher opponent if China doesn’t adhere to what he sees as fair play in global trade. Biden last week addressed President Xi Jinping, saying “no leader can be sustained in his position or her position unless they represent the values of the country.” Hence, he argued that he is committed to speaking against the way China is handling Hong Kong, the Uighurs and Taiwan. –AN
