US must forget ‘America first’ to counter China challenges, Biden campaign adviser says
- There’s no bumper sticker for the relationship between the two countries, Ely Ratner says
- US must fix itself and its relationships with allies instead of simply trying to force Beijing to change, he says
The US needs to become more competitive and abandon its “American first” approach if it wants to forge closer ties with allies to counter challenges from China, a foreign policy adviser to the campaign of US presidential hopeful Joe Biden said.
In a Paulson Institute podcast this month, Ely Ratner, director of studies at the Centre for a New American Security and an adviser to the Biden camp, said Washington should focus less on forcing Beijing to change and more on being “a more confident United States”.
“There is not a single bumper sticker you can use to describe the way that we can approach China on climate change, technology and defence issues, North Korea and every other issue under the sun,” he said in the podcast Straight Talk with Hank Paulson.
Ratner said that unlike in the Cold War era, China and the US had economic exchanges, China was integrated into the international system and other countries were reluctant to side with one bloc or another.
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