Douglas H. Paal is a Distinguished Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He previously served as vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase International (2006–2008) and was an unofficial U.S. representative to Taiwan as director of the American Institute in Taiwan (2002–2006). He was on the National Security Council staffs of Presidents Reagan and George H. W. Bush between 1986 and 1993 as director of Asian Affairs and then as senior director and special assistant to the president.
Paal held positions in the policy planning staff at the State Department, as a senior analyst for the CIA, and at U.S. embassies in Singapore and Beijing. He has spoken and published frequently on Asian affairs and national security issues.
Defence Secretary Austin struck the right note during his visit to Southeast Asia by not following the Trumpian playbook of denouncing China at every turn, but instead promoting positive relations with the region for their own sake.
We are now six months into the new administration of President Joe Biden, in the middle of his plans to “build back better” for the United States. But when it comes to policies related to China, there is not yet much to see that gives concrete meaning to that slogan.
As the transition from Donald Trump to Joe Biden proceeds in less than optimal fashion, the first order of business for America is regaining strength.
It is having the side effect of appearing to dismantle the policy of ‘engagement’ with China of the previous seven US administrations and the way they treated Taiwan.
Attention to Taiwan at this level is not a hallmark of the Trump administration. Trump first alarmed China when, as president-elect in November 2016, he accepted a congratulatory phone call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. But buyer’s remorse set in on both the Trump and Tsai camps shortly after.
The American public is far more focused on his mismanagement of the pandemic and its effects at home than on Beijing’s responsibility for it.
Washington and Beijing are not in a new cold war yet, but there is definitely a cold-war mentality at work that may diminish both sides’ capacity to manage crises effectively.
The United States should pragmatically continue to engage China where possible, while cultivating a coalition based on shared interests and values to hedge against Beijing’s unconstructive behavior.
January 2019 marks the fortieth anniversary of the normalization of relations between the People’s Republic of China and the United States. Four Carnegie scholars—two American and two Chinese—assess the relationship today.
U.S. policy has been, with respect to China, forming a bipartisan consensus in recent years. For Trump to think that a quick deal on trade problems was solved doesn’t seem consistent with the rest of the things his administration says.
