Editorial | Biden exit only adds to China uncertainty
- Beijing must continue to maintain most important of bilateral relationships regardless of whomever the Democrats pick in White House race
US President Joe Biden has dropped out of the race for re-election and endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris to succeed him, the first elected American president to choose not to seek a second term since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968.
With one selfless act, the 81-year old Biden has put his party’s interests above his own and given the Democrats a chance to revive a campaign that has been foundering since his disastrous television debate last month.
Biden’s exit also adds to the uncertainty that has plagued relations between China and the United States. One can only speculate on how Harris, who must still win the nomination of her party, will approach this vital relationship.
As a senator, she made no friends in Beijing by co-sponsoring the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019, which the then president, Donald Trump, signed into law, raising the prospects of possible diplomatic action and economic sanctions against the city.
Harris is part of an administration that has continued Trump’s trade war with China, imposed tariffs on electric vehicles and barred sales of high-end semiconductors to maintain the US edge. In 2022, she toured the Philippines and denounced “intimidation and coercion” in the region, in an apparent reference to China.
Things will not be any easier should Trump reclaim the White House. Fast and loose with facts and sparing with the truth, he has threatened even steeper tariffs on Chinese cars to protect the US automobile industry.