U.S. President Joe Biden has continued to pursue a hard-line policy toward China since taking office, and U.S.-China relations continue to be in freefall. Hong Kong media said that China is also starting to rethink its relationship with the United States and will abandon the term “new type of major power relationship”.
For years, China has defined its relationship with the United States in terms of a “new type of major power relationship,” hoping that the principles of “non-conflict and non-confrontation,” “mutual respect” and “win-win cooperation” would provide a framework for maintaining a stable relationship with the United States and prevent the inevitable confrontation between the major powers, according to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post on Aug. 2.
But the China-scepticism that emerged in the United States under Barack Obama has evolved into a full-blown trade war under Donald Trump. And that confrontation has continued under Biden’s presidency, with conflict spilling over into almost all areas of relations and there are no signs of de-escalation.
The Biden administration has been tougher on Beijing than expected, and the administration has stepped up efforts to rally allies against what it sees as a threatening rise in authoritarianism. In his recent book “The Long Game,” one of Biden’s most important China contacts, Rush Doshi, makes clear that China has long pursued an ambitious strategy to supplant the United States as the world’s superpower.
As Washington consolidates its strategy toward China, Beijing is conducting its own strategic assessment of how to define its relationship with the United States, according to a source familiar with China’s foreign policy-making who asked not to be named.
The assessment is expected to set a new set of guiding principles for Beijing’s policy toward the United States, leaving behind a “new type of great power relationship” that masks deep differences between the two countries and acknowledging the competitive nature of their relationship, according to the report.
According to the source, Chinese President Xi Jinping has become increasingly frustrated with China’s long-standing diplomatic approach, which he considers “lacking in initiative”. Xi believes that China should abandon the illusion that U.S.-China relations can return to their previous, less confrontational state.
Since Joe Biden came to power, he has reportedly seen China as “America’s most serious competitor” and is improving relations with allies to unite against China.
In this context, China’s new ambassador to the United States, Qin Gang, has arrived in Washington on July 28 to officially take up his post. Bloomberg reported on July 28 that China sent a veteran diplomat known for pushing back against Western criticism as its next ambassador to the United States, an appointment that suggests Beijing is preparing for a long period of tension with Washington.
The New York Times also noted on July 28 that Qin Gang’s record of aggressively opposing Western criticism suggests that Beijing is preparing for continued tensions with Washington.
In response to the U.S.-China relationship, Kurt Campbell, the National Security Council’s Indo-Pacific coordinator, said bluntly on May 26 that the era of U.S. engagement with China is over; U.S. policy toward China will now operate under a new set of strategic considerations, and competition is the central norm of that policy.
Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University of China, also recently said that U.S.-China relations are no longer at a crossroads and that U.S. policy toward China has been determined and that the United States has chosen a very wrong path.