Mr ‘Pivot to Asia’ in line to be Biden’s policy point man on China: report
- If appointed to new White House position, Kurt Campbell could mean less ideology and more pragmatism in Washington on China, Chinese observers say
- Campbell is widely known for his central role in the Obama administration’s ’rebalancing’ to Asia
The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that Biden would soon announce Campbell’s appointment to the White House position, created to tackle a wide range of challenges from China.
Campbell, 63, has two decades of extensive experience and a vast network of contacts in the Asia-Pacific, and was tipped to be a front runner for secretary of state when Hillary Clinton campaigned for the presidential nomination in 2015.
He was the US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs under Clinton from 2009 to 2013.
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Campbell is widely known for his central role in the Obama administration’s policy pivot, or also known as “rebalancing”, to Asia.
The goal of the strategy was to invest and promote collaboration in Asia, especially with China, on various issues, from climate change to US-led regional security. It focused on fostering economic growth through open markets to create greater opportunities for trade and investment.
That policy has been replaced with President Donald Trump’s Indo-Pacific alliance, involving a reassessment of partnerships with South Asian countries to contain China’s influence in the region.
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Chinese academics specialising in China-US affairs said Campbell was an experienced candidate for the position, and would be expected to take a practical approach to policy on China.
Liu Weidong, a US affairs researcher from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that if Biden chose Campbell it would show the administration aimed to be very pragmatic in their upcoming Asia policies.
“There may be less ideological competition and more pragmatic competition,” Liu said.
He added that Campbell was not known as a China expert particularly, but as a Southeast Asian specialist with wide connections in Australia and Japan.
“This could mean the US would cooperate further with its traditional allies to respond to China, for example stepping up relations with Japan, South Korea and Asean, to make their Asia policies more effective against China,” Liu said, referring to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
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Ren Xiao, director of the Centre for Chinese Foreign Policy at Shanghai’s Fudan University, said it was too early to tell how Campbell’s position on the “pivot to Asia” had changed in the last few years, but he was “a person who is more reasonable”.
Ren added that an article co-written by Campbell in Foreign Affairs magazine in 2018, could be telling for the future US policies on China.
In the article “The China Reckoning – How Beijing Defied American Expectations”, Campbell urged “clear-eyed rethinking” about Beijing after years of the US foreign policy establishment wrongly forecasting China’s path.
“Nearly half a century since [former president Richard] Nixon’s first steps toward rapprochement, the record is increasingly clear that Washington once again put too much faith in its power to shape China’s trajectory,” Campbell wrote.
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In an interview published in December by the Australia-based Lowy Institute, Campbell said that while the pivot strategy was “moderately effective”, the US needed to work more closely with European countries on future policies on Asia.
Campbell added that the pivot policy did have some common ground with Trump’s Indo-Pacific strategy.
“I would expect the Biden team will distance themselves from certain things but there will be some continuity in this focus as well,” he said.
