Presidents Biden and Xi – friends or foes?

 

Us president Biden’s long-standing relationship with the Chinese leader xi Jinping is no secret they go back to when they were both vice president I spent a lot of time with president xi travel over 17 000 miles with them spent their time over 24 hours in private discussions with them given this history you'd expect Biden to

quickly reverse former president Donald trump's tough approach to china but that hasn't happened so why is Biden holding firm one of the stumbling blocks in this difficult relationship is human rights Jeffrey al is a Hong Kong activist in Washington dc his activism may put him in danger back

Home i don't think it's realistic for me to Attempt to go back to Hong Kong in the foreseeable future Beijing imposed a security law on Hong Kong last year as a result many prominent Hong Kong Activists are now either in jail or excel under the new law even these photos of

Jeffrey meeting with U.S congress members could be seen as proof of him colluding with foreign forces president Biden has spoken a lot about how he thinks human rights should be a cornerstone of U.S foreign policy I don't think they're opposed to doing something about human rights in china but then they also have to balance between that and other factors one of those factors is trade trump's trade war tried to change china's unfair economic practices but it ended up causing more pain than gain for the us economy soybean farmers like john Boyd became collateral damage you know when former president trump pulled the rug from underneath the American farmers closing the door between china and the united states, they didn't have any other countries at the table to purchase or to make up the difference of a huge market and i think that was a big mistake.

Well these will probably end up in china last year the two countries signed the first phase of a trade deal but each country still places tariffs on the others goods and that worries farmers if we don't do more of a formalized agreement between china and the united states i think the

long-term effects could be devastating you'll see more American farmers you know losing their farms right now America’s farmers just sitting

on the edge we don't know what's going to happen Biden has made clear that his administration doesn't see china as a friend or an enemy but as the most serious competitor to the us bonnie Glaser is an Asia policy analyst some of the ways in which the Biden administration approaches foreign policy writ large and then china policy in

particular will differ than the trump administration the emphasis on the role of values in foreign policy the emphasis on strengthening cooperation with our allies and I think also the stress on rejuvenating America and making ourselves more competitive U.S china relations could be Biden’s biggest foreign policy challenge he has left the door open for cooperation but competition is likely to define this relationship for many years to come you.