US seeks recalibration, but China is unlikely to reciprocate
Washington wanted the Biden-Xi meeting to establish guardrails to prevent confrontation. Beijing will probably see that as just code for maintenance of the US-dominated status quo.
The virtual meeting between presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping was never likely to deliver a major breakthrough, but it does mark a significant recalibration in US policy, if not Chinese. That recalibration could be positive or negative for Australia’s relationship with China.
The big recent shift in US-China policy has been the rejection of “engagement” in favour of “competition”. The move began at the end of Barack Obama’s term and was formalised in the Trump administration’s embrace of “Great Power Competition”. Biden, who has continued many of Donald Trump’s China policies, began his term by promising “extreme competition”.
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Ben Scott is Director of the Australia’s Security and the Rules-Based Order Project at the Lowy Institute.
