Biden’s Hopes for Collaboration With China Face Hurdles
Despite President Joe Biden expressing his hope for meaningful collaboration between America and China recently, tensions remain high making it difficult for such collaborations to occur anytime soon without mutual understanding from both parties on key issues like trade policy or technology competition
Feb. 18, 2023 7:55PM
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A picture depicting a handshake between two people representing America (in red) and China (in blue).
In a recent speech, President Joe Biden expressed his hope that the United States and China could still find important areas in which they could collaborate. However, the hardening mood between the two countries makes it difficult to see how this collaboration might be achieved. The current relationship between the U.S. and China is characterized by mistrust and hostility, with both sides accusing each other of various transgressions such as economic espionage, human rights abuses, and military aggression. In addition to these issues, there are also disagreements over trade policy and technology competition that have further strained relations between the two countries. This has led to an increasingly tense atmosphere in which it is difficult to envision any meaningful collaboration taking place in the near future. The Biden administration has made some efforts to improve ties with Beijing, including offering an olive branch by lifting some tariffs imposed by former President Donald Trump's administration on Chinese imports into the U.S., as well as attempting to engage in dialogue with Chinese officials about a range of topics including climate change and human rights issues. However, these efforts have been met with skepticism from many in Washington who believe that Beijing cannot be trusted and that any attempt at cooperation will ultimately fail due to their refusal to abide by international norms or adhere to global standards of behavior. Given this backdrop of mistrust and hostility, it is unlikely that meaningful collaboration between the U.S. and China will take place anytime soon unless both sides can come together on mutually beneficial terms that address their respective concerns without compromising either country’s core interests or values. Until then, President Biden’s hopes for collaboration may remain just that—hopes—as both sides continue down a path of confrontation rather than cooperation when it comes to their relationship with one another.