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The Biden Administration’s Indo-Pacific Strategy Lacks Clarity on China

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Trans-Pacific View | Diplomacy

The Biden Administration’s Indo-Pacific Strategy Lacks Clarity on China

The strategy document fails to answer crucial questions about the desired balance between competition and cooperation with China.

The Biden Administration’s Indo-Pacific Strategy Lacks Clarity on China
Credit: Flickr/ futureatlas.com

Over a year into the Biden administration, the United States has yet to articulate a coherent China strategy. Instead, it has “muddled through” on China, repeating platitudes “about the importance of East Asia and about the enduring U.S. commitment to regional security and prosperity” offered by previous administrations. In an attempt to address the lack of strategic clarity on its overall policy in the Indo-Pacific, the White House released a new Indo-Pacific Strategy on February 11.

However, those hoping that the strategy would outline a clear vision of how the Biden administration intends to address strategic competition with China are likely to be disappointed. The strategy does little to clarify specific U.S. objectives in the Indo-Pacific vis-à-vis China, the ways and means through which it will pursue those objectives, and the opportunity costs and trade-offs of doing so.

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