Foreign Affairs Discussion Group: China
A Biden Policy Doctrine for China Emerges
Taken together, Austin and Blinken’s testimony, along with Avril Haines and Janet Yellen’s testimony, suggest an administration with a largely unified view of China. They see it as the greatest challenge to the US among nation states, one aspiring to America’s throne as dominant global power with an exportable model, and one willing to use every tool at its disposal …, necessitating a ‘whole of government’ response from Washington. Politico, 1/21/2021
This will be a first look at the emerging US policy to China in the areas of military, economic, and politics. As befits a huge topic, the suggested reading list is unusually long. To register for the ZOOM link please contact the library.
1. The Campbell/Sullivan article from the September/October 2019 issue of Foreign Affairs is the focus, largely because the authors are now senior members of the Biden White House, Jake Sullivan as the National Security Adviser and Kurt Campbell as the NSC senior coordinator for Indo-Pacific issues.A copy of “How America Can Both Challenge and Coexist With China” is available for loan at the library. Also, you might consider registering with Foreign Affairs for digital access (limited to two full-length articles per month.)
2. For background on China’s military strength compared to the US (executive summary only unless you’ve lots of free time):
3. For background on the size and nature of US-China bilateral trade:
4. President Biden and President Xi had a two hour phone call on 2/11. The first link below is the official White House readout, a paragraph long. The second link is a report by Axios of the call plus reporting on the background briefing by ‘senior government officials’ ahead of the call.5. The final link is for factual grounding. IndexMundi has a comparison of China and US facts in the ares of history, geography, demographics, government, economy, energy, telecommunications, transportation, military, transnational issues. Pay special attention to demographics and economy. It’s a long, but fascinating and quick scroll: