U.S. President Joe Biden emerged from the election as a redeemer, promising to put Donald Trump's mistakes behind him and lead the country back on track. But after more than four months in office, Biden has not really lived up to his promise, with the domestic and foreign policies of the United States essentially following the path set by his predecessor: "Trumpism," just without Trump. This is particularly evident in China-U.S. relations. 

On May 26, two important events took place in the field of China-U.S. relations. The first was Biden requesting the CIA, not the scientists, to accelerate its investigation into the origin of COVID-19, including the possibility that it emerged from a lab accident; which was perceived as a slight at China. The second, also that night, was U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai's dialogue with Liu He, Vice Premier of China, and chief of the Chinese side of the China-U.S. Comprehensive Economic Dialogue. These two seemingly separate events reflect the same problem: Biden is still using Trump's strategy of dealing with China.

One important reason why Biden won the 2020 presidential election was because he called for a scientific fight against the pandemic—in sharp contrast with Trump who refused to wear a mask and blamed China for the pandemic. Also, on January 26, with Biden in office no more than one week, he signed a memorandum banning phrases such as "China Virus" and "Wuhan pneumonia." Although this act was intended to please Asian Americans, it played a role in the recovery of China-U.S. relations. Shortly thereafter, as reported by CNN, the Biden administration also terminated the virus tracing program initiated by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the grounds of having no evidence COVID-19 originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

Nevertheless, Biden did a sudden about-face and started following in the footsteps of Trump: bringing up again the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 was leaked from the WIV, which has long been debunked by world scientists. Ironically, the Wall Street Journal article repeating Biden's lines was penned by Michael R. Gordon, the same writer who spread the disinformation that Iraq had possessed weapons of mass destruction back in 2002.

Biden seems to have no intention of making any changes on trade either. In the run-up to the election, he attacked Trump's tariff policies, claiming his trade war against China and the tariffs primarily hurt American manufacturing and agricultural sectors, and ultimately the American taxpayer. He promised to reverse the situation if he got elected.

Yet that did not happen and the tariffs are still there.

If we look back at the China-U.S. relations over the past four months since Biden took office, it is easy to see no significant changes have been made to Trump's China policy. 

Bilateral relations even deteriorated as Biden tried to use "value diplomacy" to target China: interfering in China's internal affairs under the pretext of human rights; setting up anti-China alliances by driving a wedge between China and Europe and Indo-Pacific countries; and sending more arms to China's Taiwan. The Biden administration continues to drive China-U.S. relations in an antagonizing direction.

Even if Biden says he wants to abandon the "America First" policy, the new $6 trillion economic stimulus plan or the much-criticized "vaccine protectionism" is in essence a form of "Trumpism"—characterized by economic nationalism and diplomatic unilateralism. 

The world was optimistic that with the departure of Trump, Pompeo, et al., the U.S. would rekindle its relations with China so that the two major economies could work together to fight the pandemic and deal with other pressing issues of our time.

Nevertheless, the Biden administration wants to secure both its economic and security interests but is willing to compromise on neither. To many, it looks as though he is merely tinkering with his predecessor's legacy, unable to escape Trump's clout. BR

Copyedited by Ryan Perkins

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