Former Biden official says US must work with allies to counter China

Working closely with like-minded countries remains the most effective strategy to counter an increasingly powerful China – in marked contrast to the policies of US President Donald Trump – said a former senior US official, while admitting that the Joe Biden administration made some key mistakes that undercut its own effectiveness.

“Given the size and the immensity of the China challenge, the only way that the United States is going to be effective to meet that challenge is if we work with other partners and allies,” said Kurt Campbell, former deputy secretary of state, criticising Trump’s policy of selling high-end chips to Beijing. “This open door policy on technology in some circumstances has been misguided and not attentive to American strategic interests.”

Campbell, now chairman of the Asia Group consultancy, said Trump’s approach to China has inherent contradictions. At times he seems keen to craft an entirely new US-China relationship built on business deals that benefit “him and the United States”. At other times he seems to want a pause to build US reserves of critical minerals and bolster the US military.

“In many respects, this ambiguity is designed not just to keep China off balance, but frankly, to keep elements in American society guessing what President Trump’s ultimate outcomes and desires are,” he said at an event sponsored by Foreign Policy magazine.

The US president’s lukewarm stance towards Taiwan and focus on large nation spheres of influence has left many Asian allies and partners concerned, said Campbell, a key architect of Biden’s Indo-Pacific strategy and driver of the Quad grouping of the US, Japan, India and Australia as well as the Australia-United Kingdom-US, or Aukus, security partnership.

Strategic ambiguity – the idea that Washington will not say whether it will defend Taiwan if the mainland launches an attack – has been a cornerstone of US policy.

South China Morning Post