Joe Biden to work with allies to stop China’s ‘economic abuses’
- Pledging ‘an approach of patience’, White House press secretary says Biden will evaluate the tariffs currently in place
- Deliberations over the ban on investment in companies including China Mobile are being undertaken by the State and Treasury departments, says the spokeswoman
Pledging “an approach of patience”, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday that Biden “will take a multilateral approach to engaging with China, and that includes evaluating the tariffs currently in place, and he wants to ensure that we take any steps in coordination with our allies and partners, and with Democrats and Republicans in Congress”.
Biden’s intentions with respect to the punitive tariffs has become a key focus on the US-China front as an indication of how the new leadership in Washington will handle the bilateral relationship.
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Biden to approach US-China relations with ‘patience’, says White House
“I don’t want to get ahead of any review, but certainly we’re taking an overarching look at all of it,” she said. “As we have more to report will report back to you.
“The president is committed to stopping China’s economic abuses on many fronts, and the most effective way to do that is through working in concert with our allies and partners to do exactly that.”
Yet the new administration’s plans for a coordinated approach to tackling China comes as the European Union, recently agreed to a wide-ranging investment deal with Beijing, an agreement that critics say is too weak on China’s human rights record.
White House statements about recent calls with Britain’s Boris Johnson, France’s Emmanuel Macron, and Germany’s Angela Merkel have all namechecked China as a priority issue for transpacific relations. In contrast, statements from those European countries’ governments of the same calls made no mention of the country.
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Biden moved quickly to undo a number of Trump’s policies in his first few days in office, including Washington’s return to the Paris climate agreement, but has yet to do so on any matters related directly to China.
“President Trump was right in taking a tougher approach to China,” Blinken said. “I disagree very much with the way that he went about it in a number of areas, but the basic principle was the right one, and I think that’s actually helpful to our foreign policy.”
Additional reporting by Owen Churchill
