President Joe Biden has shifted from being a China dove and a war hawk to a China hawk who is now hesitant to involve the United States in foreign wars. He seems to have learned valuable lessons from former President Donald Trump in this regard.
Throughout the lives of most Americans, U.S. presidents have initiated wars of choice that have often been ill-advised. Biden has followed Trump’s example of avoiding entering the U.S. into any wars and has resisted calls for regime change in Syria and direct military involvement in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Moreover, Biden, who previously had a hawkish stance on Iraq, has also taken a tougher stance on China. In the past, he had been criticized for being soft on China’s human rights abuses and even heavily subsidized Chinese state-owned businesses during the Obama-Biden administration.
During the 2020 campaign, Biden criticized Trump’s economic warfare against China, promising to end his tariffs and mocking them as detrimental to the American people. However, Biden has now imposed a series of tariffs on Chinese goods, continuing Trump’s economic warfare against China.
It appears that Biden has learned from Trump that China is an adversary that should be opposed whenever possible.
