Reports indicate that last week’s phone call between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping was contentious. Washington has been debating for a few years about whether, or how, to decouple from Beijing. But Biden appears undecided on what exactly his China policy will be. Meanwhile, Xi appears to have made up his mind about the degree of distance he wants between the two great powers, and he’s making it happen. It’s past time for U.S. policymakers to get their act together.
Five months into the Biden administration, I wrote in this space about the president’s indecisiveness on China and, consequently, Beijing’s delay in a counterpunch. An update of that analysis shows that Beijing’s wait is over.
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