There are indications that China views this new ‘de-risking’ strategy with skepticism, with some Chinese state-run papers asserting that de-risking conceals the same level of hostility as decoupling, just under a different name. China may believe that Biden’s moves are part of a larger goal to reduce economic ties between the two nations despite the change in nomenclature. First, China’s leaders have committed to increasing what they call China’s “discourse power”—the ability to make the rest of the world listen to their views—and shouting loudly is one way to be heard. Second, China’s diplomats seem to believe that this strident, nationalistic tone will underscore the country’s newfound strength, putting a sharp point on its demand to be treated with deference. Third, their assessment that the United States is a declining and hostile power emboldens them to press harder and further. Fourth, these aggressive envoys reveal one consequence of Xi Jinping’s emphasis on what could be called “apparatchik machismo.” “Why did the Soviet Communist Party collapse?
We will work together with democratic allies globally to develop a common agenda to push back against the PRC’s abusive and coercive economic practices in the trade space, in the technology space, and in regards to human rights. The Western powers have failed to effectively manage the increasing threat of proliferation in the Middle East. While the international community is concerned with Iran’s nuclear program, Saudi Arabia has moved forward with developing its own nuclear program, and independent studies show that Israel has longed possessed dozens of nuclear warheads. The former is a member of the treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), while the latter has refused to sign the international agreement. The Institute for Peace & Diplomacy (IPD) has launched a timely series in June 2021 to examine the current landscape of U.S.
A combination of U.S.-China rivalry and China’s national security goals is driving Beijing to take a more assertive approach to the governance of international common spaces — from outer space to cyberspace. China’s leaders believe the world has transitioned from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. Consequently, Beijing sees the ability to generate, move, analyze and exploit information more rapidly and more accurately as the new currency of international power. Only three weeks later, the White House announced that American officials, though not athletes, would boycott the Winter Olympics that open in Beijing in February.
Still more imperative is a need to begin addressing nuclear risks posed by technologies, such as offensive cyber and anti-space weapons that could take out nuclear command centers and control or blind satellites. These issues and the hypersonic missile arms race are new mutual vulnerabilities that may threaten crisis stability. It will not be easy or quick to mitigate these risks, but China’s possible willingness to begin serious talks in these areas as well as the rest of the Biden-Xi summit menu are the metrics to determine if a framework for managing a competitive coexistence is possible. Finally, on the existential question of strategic stability, the asymmetry of some 3,750 U.S. nuclear weapons to China’s roughly 350 weapons have long precluded arms reduction deals.
Relations between the United States and China are beset by a minefield of disputes across a wide range of issue areas, including not just security, but also trade and technology. While it is not clear whether all these issues were discussed, we do know that among those covered were human rights, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and the South China Sea, as well as Taiwan. Yet China’s predatory industrial policies, cyberhacking, economic coercion, and efforts to bend international institutions to its preferences have all exacerbated geoeconomic competition. This parallels Beijing’s revisionism and aggressive military activities in the East and South China Seas as well as its intimidation of Taiwan with hundreds of sorties of fighter planes and bombers. More recently, China threatened Indonesia to stop exploring for oil and gas in its own maritime territory based on Beijing’s false territorial claims there.
On trade more broadly, it will require more U.S. pressure to alter Beijing’s protectionist trade policies. The United States, European Union, and Japan are discussing industrial subsidies, and if a common position is reached, that could aid World Trade Organization reform and put pressure on China to curb and be transparent on its massive subsidies. Regarding tech competition, the United States needs to step up its game on regulation and manufacturing—major legislation to fund $52 billion of U.S. chip production has lingered for a year. A deal to ease restrictions on journalists in both countries seems designed to set a new tone—although there’s little sign China will actually open up coverage or cease targeting foreign journalists.
The incursions, dozens upon dozens, continued into the night and the days that followed and surged to the highest numbers ever on Monday, when 56 warplanes tested Taiwan’s beleaguered air defenses. Scenarios and timelines for Moscow’s possible war goals in Europe are a veritable Tetris game of alliance planning. One of Washington’s biggest worries this year has been China’s dramatic expansion of its nuclear-missile systems, as revealed through satellite imagery. China looks to have grown its arsenal by as many as another 100 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) or more.
Commerce Department tightened the noose on Huawei, cutting the telecommunications manufacturer off from critical semiconductor suppliers and expanding restrictions on U.S. technology. These measures dealt a severe blow to the company’s 5G business, and, as a result, several European countries announced restrictions on Huawei’s participation in their telecommunication networks. In addition, the Trump administration moved to ban the Chinese-owned apps TikTok and WeChat for national security reasons, which would mark the first time the United States widely blocks foreign information technology. While these restrictions have so far been halted by the courts, the Trump administration further announced its intention to limit Chinese telecom carriers and cloud service providers as well as restrict Chinese developers’ access to American mobile application stores. The Biden administration will have the luxury of deciding how much to retain of what the Trump team has built. Some decisions, such as whether to maintain tariffs on $370 billion worth of Chinese goods, will be challenging.
In this evolving landscape, Western powers will be compelled to redefine their strategic priorities and adjust their policies with the new realities in the region. In this panel, we will discuss how the West, including the United States and its allies, can utilize multilateral diplomacy with its adversaries to prevent military escalation in the region. Most importantly, the panel will discuss if a multilateral security dialogue in the Persian Gulf region, proposed by some regional actors, can help reduce tensions among regional foes and produce sustainable peace and development for the region.
Australia followed the American lead, and several others have signaled that they would find ways to protest China’s human rights abuses, casting a show on an event officials hoped would be a showcase of the country’s international standing. The United States and China are profoundly at odds on how people and economies should be governed. The two powers jockey for influence beyond their own shores, compete in technology, and maneuver for military advantages on land, in outer space and in cyberspace.
The more policies the Trump administration piles on, the greater the leverage and range of options it leaves for the Biden team. Beijing is intensifying its pressure on Taiwan’s freshly elected president, William Lai Ching-te. Instead of relying on conventional military or economic pressures, however, Beijing has employed multifaceted tools of coercion to demonstrate disapproval of the January election results. Although China is carefully calibrating its behavior to avoid provoking Taipei or the United https://www.tradebot.online/ States, Beijing’s efforts to gradually change the status quo and erase the traditional boundaries between Taiwan and China could lead to escalated tensions and unintentional conflict. Reducing methane, phasing down coal, and cooperating on clean energy technology are key areas of collaboration. At the same time, some of China’s most productive sectors, such as technology, are seeing a concerted political assault due to fears of ideological corruption or of straying outside of party control.
In this respect, the diaspora can become vital intermediaries for advancing U.S. and Canada’s business interests abroad. Promoting business diplomacy can both benefit the MENA region and be an effective and positive way to advance engagement and achieve foreign policy goals of the North Atlantic. This panel will discuss how Western powers and multilateral institutions, such as the IAEA, can play a more effective role in managing non-proliferation efforts in the Middle East. When Canada moved forward with its plan to welcome pro-democracy protesters from Hong Kong as refugees, Chinese Ambassador Cong Peiwu threatened the safety of Canadians in Hong Kong. Chinese Ambassador to the United Kingdom Liu Xiaoming brazenly criticized journalists who reported on human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian tweeted attacks at government officials worldwide and spread disinformation about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
China remains a significant global player and its policies can harm U.S. commercial interests. Past actions from China have incurred costs on U.S. companies, such as its ban on chips from U.S. chip-maker Micron which could cut off as much as 10 percent of Micron’s total revenue. Further, just this past month U.S. chip giant Intel called off a planned acquisition of Israeli semiconductor-maker Tower Semiconductor due to significant delays in China’s review of the merger. Further complicating the matter, reports emerging this summer appeared to show signs of trouble in the Chinese economy.
And more specifically, how Canada can utilize its policy instruments to more effectively deal with the increasing influx of refugees from the Middle East. This panel will investigate the trade and investment opportunities in the Middle East, discuss how facilitating economic engagement with the region can benefit Canadian and American national interests, and explore relevant policy prescriptions. At the same time, Middle Eastern diaspora communities have become financially successful and can help promote trade between North America and the region.
