Joe Biden’s tough talk leaves the US exposed to the dual threat of China and Russia

Editorial: Biden’s confrontational stance will push the Chinese and the Russians back into each other’s arms, conniving to defy and thwart America, Japan, Europe and the other major Western allies

President Joe Biden has made plain that American policy is driven by American interests (AP)

No sooner has Joe Biden finished offending the Russians by labelling Vladimir Putin a “killer” than his secretary of state, Antony Blinken, offends the Chinese.

At a ceremonial opening session at the Sino-American summit in Anchorage, Alaska, Mr Blinken subjected the Chinese delegation to a devastating barrage. Accusations of human rights abuses and other serious complaints rained down on the unsuspecting diplomats.

Mr Blinken, oblivious to Chinese pride, informed his interlocutors: “We will ... discuss our deep concerns with actions by China, including in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyberattacks on the United States, and economic coercion of our allies. Each of these actions threaten the rules-based order that maintains global stability.”

The Chinese government, represented by their most senior diplomat Yang Jiechi and state councillor Wang Yi, returned fire. The Americans, they said, were “grandstanding”, trying to impose their notion of democracy on everyone else, even when many in America have lost faith in it. The US, they added, has human rights abuses of its own to deal with, as well as a big problem with racism.

It was all a long way from the benign, bland expressions of improving mutual understanding and respect that are usually the public facade of such encounters.

It was doubly surprising because the Biden administration was expected to be an improvement on its Sinophobic predecessor. President Trump blamed China for all the major wrongs that have hurt Americans in recent years, from unfair trading practices costing American jobs to Chinese cyberespionage to the “China virus” that had, he claimed, caused the Covid pandemic. Mr Trump created an atmosphere of hostility so toxic that it led to a rise in racially motivated attacks on Chinese Americans and Asian Americans.

Mr Biden isn’t following Mr Trump’s example to that extent, but neither is he entirely abandoning what used to be called the “America First” approach. Mr Biden made plain that American policy is driven by American interests, and anyone who expected him, coming as he does from America’s old industrial heartland, to be much less protectionist is mistaken.

As a liberal-minded and compassionate Democrat, Mr Biden is also no doubt moved by the plight of the Muslim Uighur people of China. The president is also, though, a politician and wary of appearing “soft” on China in the way that Donald Trump predicted he would be. Standing up aggressively for American values and interests goes down well in Trumpland, if not in Beijing.

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Perhaps, then, the Chinese were right to detect a certain amount of grandstanding. Behind the scenes, the officials will no doubt get on with ending the trade war and ironing out at least some of their differences, including on climate change, though a comprehensive detente seems unlikely.

America no longer has the economic and military power to be able to dominate global politics in the way it did, say, half a century ago. At the height of the Cold War, America could view with equanimity the prospect of simultaneously hostile relations with Russia and China, whether they were allied with each other or not.

Today, with China’s economy overtaking America’s and with an ever more expansionist Russia rearming, America risks overreach if it tries to play the global role it last managed to fulfil in the 1950s.

By accident or design, President Trump’s unhealthily chummy relationship with President Putin at least meant US diplomats only had to battle on one front: against the Chinese. Now Mr Biden is fighting on two fronts, and with powers he actually needs help from to protect peace, humanity and western interests in the Middle East, Korea and many other troubled parts of the world.

The risk is that Mr Biden’s tough talk will push the Chinese and the Russians, hitherto wary rivals, back into each other’s arms, conniving to defy and thwart America, Japan, Europe and the other major western allies in a new tripolar cold war.

Barely two months into the Biden administration, it is not an impressive start.