I think you’ve got it backward. The likelihood is that the Obama administration treated China more like an ally and less as a hostile power than Trump has treated them.
The current administration sees China as a huge threat, the previous several administrations (republican and democrat) did not. Or if they did, they thought the way to deal with the threat was through economic cooperation.
There's a lot of continuity between the Obama and Biden administrations, including foreign policy. If things were more stable back then, it's mainly because Obama just let China do whatever tf they wanted (occupying the South China Sea, hacking Google, planting Huawei spying equipment across the globe) and did nothing about it. Trump forced everyone to pay attention, no more free lunch for Xi.
China can give as much support as it wants and it will buy no love in the white house or congress on a bipartisan level. China is deemed the new rising power that has to be taken down. W Bush started the anti China policy (with a hiatus because of other war distractions), then Obama’s Pentagon drew up invasion plans in his first term (but ultimately decided that that window had closed) and then thus instituted the Pivot to Asia (economic strangulation of China). Now Trump is continuing it and both parties foreign policy gurus are anti-Chinese. Other potential recipient countries would probably appreciate the gesture long term.
That rhetoric makes me uneasy. Isn’t the US an enemy of China the choice of the US? My understanding is that until Trump overnight declaration of economic war and Biden continuing it China was maybe not an ally but a strong economic partner. Don’t tell me being authoritarian automatically makes it an enemy otherwise so would be Saudi Arabia with the Yemen situation being worse than anything in China.
It’s a statement of how I perceive things. It’s not an anti-American or pro-China perspective. It’s just the way the world is now. American soft power is being diminished. I don’t think this is disputable or controversial. As China’s economy gets bigger it’s natural for this to occur. It will eventually be the case that China’s economy becomes the most important one. The loss of American soft power would be happening with or without Trump being the President. I didn’t mention Trump in my post so I don’t know why you bring him up.
I don't this this is a symmetric relationship. Since Trump can't into office, the US has taken an extremely aggressive stance towards China and has sought to intensify the conflict over a whole range of areas (initiating the trade war, making wild accusations of genocide, moving towards recognition of Taiwan, pushing conspiracy theories about CoVID-19), while China has tried to avoid escalation and has almost never gone beyond reciprocal actions. Australia has aligned itself fully with the US in most of these actions, leading the charge against Huawei, funding a prominent think tank that churns out anti-Chinese propaganda, pushing the lab-leak conspiracy theory, inserting itself into disputes in the South China Sea, etc.
I think there's a clear aggressor in this situation. The US believes that China is a threat to the unipolar order that has prevailed since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and has embarked on a confrontational policy towards China. Australia, caught between its military ally and its top economic partner, has decided to throw itself entirely behind its military ally.
The description of America's retreat from the world has been happening for the last few administration's so I don't know if they are referencing Trump directly.
The US liked to throw it's weight around and act like an asshole at times and China is now trying to provide another option to get nation's on their side
I doubt this will be my most popular comment on HN but Trump really has to be congratulated for being the first President to actually do something about the growth in strategic strength of the absolutely terrifying regime that currently controls China. I know the Obama administration made some noises but I don't recall them actually inconveniencing China in a serious way.
To me this is all naked geopolitics, hardly fair and extremely risky. But finally America is transitioning to worrying about real problems rather than, say, the policy of treating shepherds in Afghanistan as a major threat in the Bush era.
I think we do. They've had a very favored status for decades now. I didn't like a much of what Trump did, but playing hardball with China, I definitely liked that.
Obama's pivot was based on TTP, and generally avoiding direct confrontation with China.
Trump's agenda is completely different - ignoring partnership/bilateral approach, and fairly assertively acting against China.
But those were also strategies founded in different eras: the TTP was create back when China was still not quite powerful enough to be a dangerous world actor. Now it's more of a 'standoff' situation with unpredictable leadership from Trump.
And with only a 4 year horizon after which 'everything changes' on the American side.
I don't think I've been obtuse whatsoever. The existence of the One China policy doesn't change the fact that since 2015, broader US policy has shifted from viewing China as a partner to a competitor[0]. That policy has been described as "a blueprint for a Cold War 2.0"[1] and that:
> Any effort on the Biden team's part to improve relations (and China has indicated a strong desire to do so) would likely have the administration fending off charges of being soft on China.
The results of this approach have been, among others: a trade war, a president repeating conspiracy theories that blame China for Coronavirus[2], and publicly accusing China of controlling the WHO[2]:
> "I chose not to make a statement today," Mr Trump said on Monday about the event, while describing the body as "China-centric" and "a puppet of China".
> He said the WHO had "gave us a lot of very bad advice, terrible advice" and were "wrong so much and always on the side of China".
More recently we've heard American politicians, in a congressional hearing, repeatedly refer to China as their "enemy". Are we supposed to believe that doesn't indicate how far relations have cooled? Are we supposed to be shocked that China doesn't align with US interests on Russia when the US has been displaying open hostility?
I don't think most lefty-left Westerners are also pro-China. I know in my circles going after China—however ineptly and weakly—is probably the only major thing Trump's done that any of us agree with.
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