US-China rivalry: Biden unlikely to be any softer on Beijing than Trump, leading expert says

President-elect’s diplomatic strategy ‘will be largely different from Trump, but that does not mean China-US relations will improve’, Tsinghua University’s Yan Xuetong says

Biden might also seek to use damage caused by Trump as a bargaining chip to get what he wants from Beijing, he says

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US president-elect Joe Biden (pictured in 2013 with Chinese President Xi Jinping) is likely to be just as tough on Beijing as his predecessor, an academic says. Photo: TNS

Published: 6:20pm, 26 Dec 2020Updated: 11:09pm, 26 Dec 2020

US president-elect Joe Biden might take a more “sophisticated” approach to dealing with China than his predecessor, Donald Trump, but Beijing should not expect an easy ride in the years ahead, a Chinese academic has said.

“Biden’s diplomatic strategy will be largely different from Trump, but that does not mean China-US relations will improve,” Yan Xuetong, dean of Tsinghua University’s Institute of Modern International Relations in Beijing, said in an interview with Chinese media group Caixin.

The new president’s policy goal was “the same as Trump’s … to prevent China from narrowing the power gap with the United States”, he said.

“Biden will adopt a more sophisticated strategy than Trump, which may cause greater international difficulties for China,” Yan said.

For example, rather than trying to rein in Chinese technology firms by preventing them from buying American components or adding them to a sanctions list, as Trump had done, Biden would weigh up whether such a move was good or bad for the US, he said.

“If it causes more harm to the US, it is not wise to implement the policy. Therefore, after Biden takes office, there may be a selective decoupling [of the two countries] … with the US making its choices on the basis of whether they are beneficial to the country.”

Yan Xuetong is dean of Tsinghua University’s Institute of Modern International Relations in Beijing. Photo: Weibo