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Strategic Vision vol. 10, no. 50 (September, 2021)
Process vs. Structure New Biden administration raises questions on East Asian security policy Masahiro Matsumura
photo: US State Department
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Then-Vice President Joe Biden raises his glass to toast Chinese President Xi Jinping at a state luncheon in Washington, DC in 2015.
ith China rattling its saber fiercely, the world is now paying significant attention to the issue of security in East Asia. Yet, the new administration of US President Joe Biden is taking a milquetoast position on China policy, neither taking a bold new direction nor clarifying whether the hardline anti-China policies adopted under the previous administration of former President Donald Trump will continue to define the US position on this crucial dossier. A comprehensive analysis employing a global political-economic perspective is necessary to identify where the region’s
security question stands, and why Biden is so indecisive on the China issue. It is under the conditions of an intensified US-China hegemonic rivalry that Biden has replaced Trump, who took an across-the-board confrontational approach to dealing with Beijing’s aggressive behavior. Yet, this new administration has not developed a coherent strategic vision for dealing with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). This has produced uncertainty over whether or not Trump’s tough stance on China will continue. It also poses difficult policy challenges for frontline states, such as Japan and
Dr. Masahiro Matsumura is a professor of international politics at St. Andrew’s University (Momoyama Gakuin Daigaku) in Osaka, Japan. He can be reached for comment at masahiro@andrew.ac.jp