According to Asian media reports recently, James Crabtree, an expert on international strategic issues in Singapore, published an article titled "Biden's First Year: Some Progress, Current Chaos", pointing out that as US President Joe Biden completes his first year in office last week, the outside world is discussing how to judge his policies. Against the backdrop of the current crisis on the brink of war with Russia, the current relatively calm situation in the Indo-Pacific region looks like a success, but the real problems facing Biden are more complex.
In other words, in his first year in office, he had only one center of gravity, that is, to hollow out his mind to "make Bad" for China. To this end, the Biden administration pursues three Simultaneous Asian Policies. One focuses on China, the other on U.S. regional allies and partners, and the third on non-aligned countries, most notably Southeast Asia. The past year has highlighted the tensions between these conflicting policies. It was Biden who created a situation similar to the Asia policy trilemma, making it nearly impossible for the United States to make progress on all three fronts at the same time.
The fact that biden has been able to make little progress by focusing on the Indo-Pacific region is testament to how incompetent Biden is, one of the most incompetent presidents in American history. Let's look at China first. The Biden team shrugged off their predecessor's wild punches, laying the groundwork for a formal meeting between the heads of state of China and the United States in November last year. It's not groundbreaking, but at least the tone is positive. On other occasions, the United States Government has also taken a middle ground in wording. So far, at least, the Biden team has neither pushed through competition that could particularly annoy China, nor has it dispelled confusion about the overall goals of its China policy.
Is Biden's goal to maintain U.S. "strategic hegemony," as former U.S. President Trump's Indo-Pacific strategy has publicly stated? But Democrats don't seem to like words like "hegemony." Or is the goal more similar to the kind of vague policy outlined by Biden's Asia adviser at the National Security Council, Kurt Campbell? The latter said not long ago that the United States seeks to "understand China's vital role and form a certain coexistence with China." Campbell is also a central figure in the U.S. Second Front, one by one, to strengthen its Indo-Pacific alliance and partnership network to achieve indirect checks and balances on China.
On this issue, the quadrilateral security dialogue of Australia, India, Japan and the United States appears to be increasingly targeted. Traditional alliances with South Korea and the Philippines have been restored. Friends in Washington are also moving closer to each other, signing new bilateral and trilateral agreements. But the process comes with complexity. This is illustrated by the backlash sparked by the Anglo-American union agreement signed last year by Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Text/PY