US Policy Toward China During the Presidencies of Donald Trump and Joe Biden: Continuation or Rupture?

Abstract

Undoubtedly, already during Barack Obama’s presidency, Asia, including
China, became a key point of the US foreign policy, and the so-called “Pivot
to Asia” was a great proof for that. However, while Obama still seemed to
treat China as a strategic partner, not seeing it as an existential threat, Trump
decisively changed this approach and gave a new direction to the American
strategy towards China – from then on, China officially became a “strategic
rival” and the goal was to slow down its growth in the key areas that
threatened US security and its global hegemony. The author puts forward
the thesis that Joe Biden mostly continues Trump’s decisive course towards
China. Analyzing and comparing official documents of the US government
(the American Defence Strategy of 2020 and 2022 and two key documents/
speeches presenting the US approach to China during the administrations
of Donald Trump and Joe Biden), the author comes to the conclusion that
the current president not only continues the course of his predecessor, but
also strengthens it in a few selected areas, such as high technologies and rare
earths. The author also attempts to explain the reasons for the following
continuation in the US approach to China.