Since winning the election, US President Biden has repeatedly announced to the international community that "America is back". However, in the face of a series of shocks such as the riots on Capitol Hill and the COVID-19 epidemic, both opponents and allies are cautious about how the United States will return and how it will affect the current international order. Since taking office for 100 days, Biden’s government has implemented the general direction of "making peace outside", focused on issues such as epidemic prevention and relief and bridging social differences, and at the same time had to face the thorny problem of the influx of refugees from the southern border. Therefore, compared with the phased results of vaccine promotion and economic relief, the Biden administration, which has been in power for 100 days, has focused its diplomatic work on the strategic level, worked out the layout of articles and built a framework.
When Biden took office, the author wrote that Biden’s administration stressed that diplomacy and internal affairs were inseparable in the face of "internal troubles and foreign invasion" and was committed to using its reputation and contacts for many years to reshape the international image of "freedom and democracy" in the United States. At present, these basic views constitute the main features of Biden’s diplomatic strategic framework.
It is no stranger that diplomacy is closely related to internal affairs. During the Cold War, American presidents often promoted the domestic policy agenda on the grounds of enhancing national security. For example, in order to build an interstate highway system, President Eisenhower proposed that the system would improve the mobility of the US military. However, since the end of the cold war, the separation between American diplomacy and internal affairs has become more and more serious. In order to maintain the hegemonic position of the United States, successive presidents since Clinton have advocated economic globalization and liberalization, and overseas expenditures, including military spending and foreign aid, have increased rapidly since the September 11 incident. However, most ordinary people in the United States did not benefit from it. After the financial crisis, the sense of deprivation intensified, which eventually led to Trump’s birth in 2016.
Therefore, the Biden administration tried to break the long-term separation between diplomacy and internal affairs from the very beginning. According to the Atlantic Monthly, unlike previous administrations, Biden tried to break the traditional boundaries between internal affairs and diplomatic officials. For example, Rice, a former national security adviser, was appointed as the director of the White House’s domestic policy committee, and Sullivan, a current national security adviser, also said that he would get in touch with the White House’s functional departments in charge of domestic affairs and make in-depth integration on issues such as stimulating investment, global supply chain, COVID-19 epidemic and climate change.
Diplomacy is internal affairs, and internal affairs is diplomacy.
The Biden administration first proposed that foreign policy should serve the "middle class", not multinational companies or Wall Street elites.In the Medium-Term Guidelines of National Security Strategy (hereinafter referred to as the Guidelines) published in early March, Biden’s government put the interests of working families at the center of the national security strategy, and put forward the concept of "economic security is national security", emphasizing the need to ensure that "the international economic order will not harm the interests of the United States".
Therefore, Biden’s international economic and trade policy no longer actively promotes liberalization and globalization as the Democratic government did in the past, but instead pursues increasing domestic investment and employment, and is closely integrated with national security issues. On April 13th, Biden’s administration held a "Semiconductor and Supply Chain" summit to discuss the shortage of chips, and publicized its $2.33 trillion infrastructure plan to companies including Samsung and TSMC, calling on them to invest and set up factories in the United States, aiming at establishing a semiconductor supply chain dominated by the United States and reducing their dependence on China enterprises.
In response to global warming, Biden’s administration is trying to find a balance in the divided American society and strive for maximum domestic support. On the one hand, Biden immediately announced his return to the Paris Agreement after taking office, and held an online climate summit attended by leaders of 40 countries, including China and Russia, within 100 days of his term of office, which showed his attitude to the supporters of the Democratic Party and the international community. On the other hand, in order to reduce domestic resistance, Biden emphasized that solving the climate problem will bring great opportunities, create new employment opportunities and revitalize the US economy.
In terms of internal affairs, Biden also followed the example of the President of the United States during the Cold War and linked domestic policy issues with national security and core interests, hoping to win the support of the Republican Party and its voters.The Guidelines emphasize that "the distribution of power in the world is changing", and the full text mentions China 15 times, while the Russian only mentions it five times. Apart from gun control and racial issues, Biden almost always moves out of China to increase his legitimacy when promoting other domestic issues.
In the statement issued by the White House at the end of March to promote the infrastructure bill, China was mentioned six times, claiming that China would overtake it if it did not increase investment in infrastructure, clean energy and scientific research. At the subsequent semiconductor summit, Biden indirectly shouted to Congress that China intended to dominate the semiconductor supply chain, and the United States could not sit idly by. In the just-concluded 100-day speech to Congress, Biden even used China as the excuse when promoting the American Family Plan, calling on Congress to support increasing investment in education. In his speech, Biden once again called on the Republican Party to take action and "prove that democracy can still be effective" to American opponents.
From "American Priority" to "Democratic Priority"
Compared with the Trump era, the biggest difference of Biden’s administration is that it abandoned the highly exclusive strategy of "American priority" and instead emphasized "democratic priority", trying to build "democratic" alliances in transatlantic and Indo-Pacific regions.
Under this framework, Biden’s government published an assessment report on the killing of Saudi journalist Kachouqi, saying that it was "recalibrating" its relationship with Saudi Arabia. On the other hand, it kept making small moves on the Taiwan Province issue, repeatedly emphasizing Taiwan Province’s so-called "democratic value". From the Biden administration’s point of view, building a "democratic" alliance and emphasizing the so-called "threat" to the democratic system will help to recall the traditional allies in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region in a short time and achieve the "voice" effect, without making too many concessions on economic and trade issues, and maximize the support of non-democratic voters.
The main tone of "democracy first" is also reflected in Biden’s hope to reshape the image of the "democratic beacon" in the United States and rebuild the "power of demonstration." In addition to rejoining the international organizations and treaties that Trump withdrew from, Biden still linked internal affairs and diplomacy in his congressional speech on April 28th. By acknowledging that American democracy was "the most serious attack since the Civil War", he called on Congress to take action and pass the infrastructure bill, which proved that "democracy is in action" and "can bring results to the people". At the same time, he called on American society to face up to and solve white supremacist terrorism and racism.
"America is back, but how long will it last?"
After 100 days in power, how will Biden’s foreign policy develop under the above framework?
First of all, the Biden administration’s current tough attitude towards China may be eased in the future. In the early days of Biden’s tenure, the Biden administration had to take a tough or even confrontational attitude towards China, whether in order to establish a tough image to the China administration, to respond to previous Republican queries, or to persuade Congress to pass the infrastructure bill. However, when the United States was at war, it still did not forget to send climate ambassador Kerry to visit China. Biden also stressed that "competition is welcome" but "no conflict is sought", and the State Council just announced the lifting of the "ban on China students studying in the United States". At present, Biden’s government has not put forward a complete diplomatic strategy toward China, but with Biden gradually establishing a tough image toward China at home and the domestic social economy on the right track, the necessity of slamming the "anti-China card" may decline. An important indicator in the short term is whether Congress can successfully pass the infrastructure bill. If the bill is successfully passed, the space for future cooperation with China will increase accordingly.
Secondly, the "democratic alliance" that does not spend real money and depends solely on value is unsustainable. Biden has only been in power for a hundred days. Except for a few allies, other allies welcomed the "return of the United States", but they still kept a wait-and-see attitude. Even Japan, America’s most important ally in Asia, is trying to maintain a delicate balance between the United States and China. Although the "Taiwan Province Strait" was mentioned for the first time in the US-Japan joint statement after 52 years, a summary of the Japan-US summit meeting released by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs later avoided all the regional issues mentioned in the joint statement, such as China, Taiwan Province, Hongkong and Xinjiang. Biden himself admitted in his congressional speech that world leaders are most concerned about "the United States is back, but how long will it last?" Obviously, leaders of all countries are worried about the US government’s "capricious change".
For Biden’s government, how to restore America’s international reputation is probably more important than restoring the image of "democracy beacon".
(Wu Xuanxuan, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Ou Daoming University, USA)
