Biden may struggle to ‘restore’ US foreign policy to deal with China challenge, experts say
- International community is sceptical after Trump’s ‘America first’ approach, virtual panel discussion told
- Washington also advised to ‘cool it publicly’ with Beijing and re-establish a private, strategic channel of communication
During a virtual panel discussion on Tuesday, Bob Corker, former chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said it would be difficult for Biden to “restore” US foreign policy to the pre-Trump era, given how global challenges had evolved and how the American public’s appetite for foreign involvement had changed.
While Biden’s commitment to multilateralism would be important for the US to tackle issues, notably with China, the international community was sceptical of how reliable Washington’s foreign policy would be after Trump’s “America first” approach shattered long-standing norms, they said.
At the event hosted by the California-based Milken Institute, Corker said the Trump administration had been able to help Americans better understand the challenges that China presented, but had not done a good job in organising US allies to meet that challenge.
“I think the steps that Biden can now take in coming out and restoring those relationships can go a long way towards us collectively doing the things we need to do to counter some of the things that China is doing that are unacceptable,” he said.
But he cautioned that there were difficulties in rallying allies to deal with Beijing, given many countries’ heavy economic reliance on China.