Cheng Li and Xiuye Zhao argue that by proactively engaging and empowering subnational leaders, the Biden administration can broaden bipartisan consensus at the state and local level, benefit the American middle class, and enhance U.S. leverage in strategic competition with China.
Brookings recently completed a year-long project exploring the health of democratic governance in Asia to provide a more granular understanding of the governance trends in key Asian democracies and identify practical steps to strengthen democratic resilience in the region.
In conjunction with the report's release, Brookings Foreign Policy will host a webinar on Friday, January 29 examining the health of democracy in Asia. Sign up to watch here.
As part of the Brookings Blueprints for American Renewal & Prosperity project, David Dollar and Ryan Hass lay out an alternative response to Trump's approach to the China challenge, and Lindsey W. Ford and James Goldgeier offer recommendations on retooling America’s alliances in Asia.
David Dollar analyzes China's domestic and international challenges for economic growth over the next several decades and reviews potential policy avenues that Beijing may take to address them.
U.S.-China climate collaboration. Rather than turning the U.S.-China relationship into a "Manichean good vs. evil struggle," Ryan Hass says the focus should be on "how best to explore policy coordination with China amidst a relationship that is defined by intensifying competition, and at a time when China is growing more repressive at home and aggressive abroad."
After lifting restrictions on U.S.-Taiwan relations, what comes next?Ryan Hass analyzes former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's outgoing decision to lift restrictions on U.S.-Taiwan relations, and predicts that President Biden will strike a balanced public posture while reviewing longstanding policies on Taiwan.
Taiwan’s opportunities and risks in the Biden era. As part of the Taiwan-U.S. Quarterly Analysis series, Eric Yu-Chua Huang writes that Taipei "should expect a weather but not atmosphere shift from Trump-era policies" with the Biden presidency.
The state of China’s semiconductor industry.Christopher Thomas examines how "vibrant, advanced, and innovative Chinese companies are increasingly determined to forge a new semiconductor ecosystem centered on China." The repercussions of this shift, Thomas argues, "will reverberate far longer than any short-term benefits derived from using access to semiconductors as a negotiating lever in the larger context of U.S.-Chinese relations."
In the news
How will the Biden administration deal with China? In an interview for the Sinica podcast, Ryan Hass said that the Biden team is not, in fact, boxed in by Trump’s antagonism toward China, and will chart a path that will diverge substantially from the one taken during four years of Trump without retreading the path taken during the Obama presidency.
A Biden-Xi summit?Cheng Li told the South China Morning Post that a Biden-Xi summit soon after the president-elect’s inauguration would be premature. Li states that this approach would carry little risk because “the political atmosphere in the U.S. ... is still quite negative about China.” Compared with Trump's first summit, “we probably won’t see this kind of meeting as early,” Li said.
Will Biden remove Trump's tariffs? David Dollar told Fortune that “President Biden has made it clear that he will not move quickly to eliminate the tariffs imposed on imports from China, or the tech-related measures," and that China may not be much of a focus for Biden at all in the first year of his presidency, as he grapples with the coronavirus and the post-pandemic economy.
About the China Center
The John L. Thornton China Centerdevelops timely, independent analysis and policy recommendations to help U.S. and Chinese leaders address key long-term challenges, both in terms of U.S.-China relations and China's internal development.
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