US’ China policy at inflection point — M. K. Bhadrakumar

Suffice to say, the Franco-German-Chinese summit proclaimed loudly and unequivocally that Europe has an entirely different agenda toward China from what Biden and his team would be espousing. That is, plainly put, in external relations, Europe attaches primacy to its post-pandemic economic recovery where China’s cooperation is an imperative need.

In essence, the trilateral summit has exposed that the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific concept aimed at containment of China is not gaining traction in the two major European capitals — Berlin and Paris. The fault lines underscore that the US’ containment strategy has reached a strategic inflection point.

When two close allies of Washington who are also the power houses within the European Union, start ploughing their own independent road to Beijing, it sends out a big message internationally that the US’ transatlantic leadership, which Biden administration vowed to secure as the anchor sheet of its China policy, is adrift in the middle of nowhere. Blinken’s shrill rhetoric is all that remains as policy after one hundred days of the Biden presidency.

The US is slipping into irrelevance as more countries shift attention to opportunities. Did the US get too high-handed in light of global economic realities and the consequent shift in power dynamics and relationships?

India Punchline
US’ China policy at inflection point
M. K. Bhadrakumar | retired diplomat with the Indian Foreign Service