China News Network, January 20 (Reporter Meng Xiangjun) On the 20th local time, US President Biden held a press conference on the occasion of the first anniversary of his presidency, summarizing his year of governance from the aspects of anti-epidemic, economic, military and other aspects.
In the past year since he entered the White House, how has Biden done? China News Network reporter specially invited Wang Peng, a researcher at the National Governance Research Institute of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, to carry out in-depth interpretation.
Infographic: U.S. President Joe Biden inside the Oval Office of the White House in Washington.
【Epidemic prevention: poor efficacy】
At present, the new crown epidemic in the United States has rebounded seriously, with a cumulative confirmed case of more than 65 million cases and a staggering nearly 900,000 cumulative deaths. In all of 2020, more than 380,000 Americans died of COVID-19.
Although Biden said at the press conference that he "exceeded expectations" in the response to the epidemic, recent polls show that 55% of the us respondents are dissatisfied with the effectiveness of Biden's anti-epidemic measures.
Wang Peng pointed out that in terms of fighting the epidemic, compared with the State of "lying flat" and "diving in a straight line" during the Trump period, the Biden administration has slogans, actions and plans to fight the epidemic. But in the end, it is still results-oriented, depending on the "curative effect".
"Unfortunately, it should be said that even without the Ami kerong mutation strain, I don't think Biden can control the epidemic and I don't see that he has done better." Wang Peng further pointed out that there is still a Republican Party that "sings the right stage."
Infographic: Passengers ride the New York City subway. Photo by Liao Pan, a reporter from China News Service
【People's livelihood: inflation soared】
Wang Peng pointed out that the lack of epidemic prevention is a long-term factor that has led to a sharp decline in Biden's support rate. From a short-term perspective, it is related to the rise in the US CPI. In December 2021, inflation in the United States reached the highest level in 39 years, as a "country on wheels", the United States oil prices and prices rose both, and people's livelihood was impacted.
The Biden administration has introduced a policy to subsidize the epidemic to the people, which looks good, but in fact it is not the same. Why? Wang Peng analyzed that when the US government sends money, it is never possible to "cut the flesh from itself", but in fact, it is through printing dollars to transfer the inflationary pressure to the world. China, for example, sells goods to the United States and buys U.S. debt, and other countries are under such pressure.
For many Americans, they risk the risk of contracting the virus to work, earn little money and have to pay taxes, may not have taken the original relief money plus anti-epidemic preferential subsidies more, or the income gap is not large. This has led to the "lying flat" mentality of the people.
Wang Peng said that under the impact of the epidemic, there have been a large number of job vacancies in key areas such as logistics, which are related to the national economy and people's livelihood. Many goods in the United States are too expensive to produce themselves, and the quality is not good, and they can only be imported from China and other countries. However, after the imported goods were shipped to the U.S. ports, no one unloaded or transported them, resulting in the accumulation of goods and the supermarkets had no goods to sell.
Wang Peng pointed out that the recent supply chain crisis has impacted the American people's livelihood and has a greatly depressing effect on Biden's support rate.
Infographic: U.S. soldiers plant the flag on the tombstones of fallen soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.
【National Defense: Bundle of Interests】
Although on November 5, 2021, the US House of Representatives passed a thrilling $1.2 trillion infrastructure construction bill, Wang Peng pointed out that this is a lot of discount compared to Biden's original proposal.
Speaking of the "bargaining" given by congress to the bill, Wang Peng pointed out that this is a common phenomenon. However, it is worth noting that the United States has appeared in a situation of "no reduction but increase" in some bills involving the military.
For example, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2022, passed in December 2021, amounted to $768 billion, which not only increased the Biden administration's spending by $25 billion, but also increased the U.S. defense budget by 5% over the previous year. Among them, Wang Peng believes that there is no shortage of factors such as the United States exaggerating the "threat" between China and Russia.
In the final analysis, Wang Peng said that this phenomenon shows that the US military industry interest groups and the military, political circles, financial circles and even academic circles collude to jointly "kidnap" the government and the people, sacrificing the welfare of the United States to meet the demands of a small number of interest groups.
Infographic: U.S. President Joe Biden.
Diplomacy: Reshaping Hegemony
One of Biden's previous frequent slogans was "America is back." Wang Peng pointed out that the core of the Biden administration's foreign policy is its own definition of "multilateralism", which is different from the Trump era's explicit denunciation of multilateralism and frequent withdrawal from the group.
The Biden administration's diplomatic strategy this year has been mainly carried out from two aspects.
First, it is Wang Peng's generalization of "great multilateralism," which is specifically used to serve the United States and engage in global ideological criticism.
For example, in 2021, the United States held a so-called "democracy summit" to gather as many countries and political groups as possible to isolate other countries. In Wang Peng's view, this is similar to "the isolation of small kindergarten gangs", and the Biden administration wants to create a 9:1 effect similar to the international community, but it has not been achieved.
Second, it is "small multilateralism.". For example, Wang Peng's new important geostrategic tool created by the Biden administration is the "Trilateral Security Partnership" (AUKUS) between the United States, britain, and Australia, which is to minimize the number of actors, take the most refined "small multilateral" of the sea power alliance, and improve the execution and action power, aiming to reshape the core of the US global hegemony.
AUKUS, as the core grip of the United States to contain China, introduced to the United Kingdom to achieve the linkage between the Indo-Pacific and the world; and supporting Australia can also be regarded as the United States' backhand in the "Indo-Pacific" game against China.
In short, the "Indo-Pacific" strategy has become a testing ground for the "small multilateralism" of the United States, and similarly includes the "quadrilateral security dialogue" mechanism between the United States, Japan, Australia, and India.
In addition to the security layout, how to gather and solidify the Indo-Pacific countries on the economic framework and create a set of rules that can hardly exclude China is also what the Biden administration wants.
Wang Peng pointed out that although the United States currently needs to stop losses in tariffs and loosen up on China, he believes that there is no evidence that Biden is different from Trump in terms of the technology trade war with China.
He said that the United States will link economic and trade issues with national security, and the "Strategic Competition Act" passed by the Senate in April 2021 is to define Sino-US relations with great power competition, under this framework, he believes that it is difficult to have a substantial turnaround in the future of Sino-US economic and trade, and can only see tricks and tricks.
However, in addition to chips, high-tech and other fields, in the vast majority of products, the United States is now relying on China trade rigidly, so the United States will open up cooperation where it judges its own advantages.
In addition, when it comes to European-AMERICAN relations, Wang Peng analyzed that during the Trump period, the EU's rights and obligations were equal, the contradictions between the United States and Europe intensified, and Biden eased the contradictions by visiting Europe to win over.
But the European Union has always emphasized strategic autonomy and wants to get rid of US control, and the United States and Australia have also robbed the French submarine order, and France is "very angry".
Data chart: Ukrainian and NATO forces hold "Sea Breeze" military exercises.
Wang Peng pointed out that at present, the United States hypes that Russia wants to "invade" Ukraine to threaten sanctions against Russia, but Europe is encountering an "oil and gas shortage", and Europe, which relies on Russian oil and gas, is very difficult to get caught between the United States and Russia. On sensitive issues such as Russia, the unity of transatlantic allies remains to be seen.
【What does the future hold?】 】
Currently, Biden's overall approval rating is only 33%. Overall, Wang Peng concluded that Biden's governance performance this year has been lackluster, and there is not much to be commended.
Regarding Biden's future governance, Wang Peng believes that the biggest problem he faces may be insufficient resources and many opponents. Its team cohesion is also insufficient, and biden can be seen "demolishing the east wall to make up for the west wall", but the result is that "pressing the gourd and floating up the scoop".
And in November, the United States will usher in the midterm elections that are crucial to the Biden administration. Wang Peng pointed out that according to the current situation, Biden is likely to lose the election and become a "lame duck" president. (End)
Source: China News Network