March 02,2021 Open Forum

Washington Insights, Vol. 9, No. 1

ChinaThis year is the kick-off for Xi’s reelection campaign in 2022 after the Party Congress and the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CCP. Xi will be hypersensitive. Beijing is not starting the new Biden era with cautious engagement. Wolf warrior diplomacy is a feature of the system. China is more confident after 2020. As Xi becomes more powerful, more mistakes are likely. ..

Editorial Staff
free and open Indo-Pacific , Joe Biden , Quad , TPP , US-China rivalry , Wolf Warrior Diplomacy , Xi Jinping
February 15,2021 National Commentaries

How Should the Biden Administration Handle China’s Economic Pressure Campaign against Australia?

Despite a new year and a new president in Washington, China’s economic punishment against Australia continues. More than four years since the early signs of politically motivated trade restrictions first appeared, this economic statecraft saw a reduction of approximately AU$3 billion worth of Australian exports to China in 2020.1 Impacting a wide range of industries, most notably coal, w..

Benjamin Herscovitch
Economic sanctions , Joe Biden , Liberal international order , Scott Morrison , World Trade Organization
February 15,2021 National Commentaries

Reviving the US –Japan alliance

The year 2021 is likely to be frustrating for the US-Japan alliance.1 The return of a process-oriented, alliance-centered decision-maker to the White House has relieved alliance managers and supporters in both Washington and Tokyo. The more pointless irritants in the bilateral relationship will be removed. Business as usual can resume as national security bureaucrats in both countries will be..

Brad Glosserman
COVID-19 , free and open Indo-Pacific , Joe Biden , National Security Strategy , Nuclear Posture Review , Suga Yoshihide , trilateralism
February 15,2021 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (February 2021)

The end of 2020 and beginning of 2021 saw Japan in a wait-and-see mood: knowing that Joe Biden would be the US president and that Suga Yoshihide would sustain the legacy of Abe Shinzo, but unsure what Biden’s approach would be on the most sensitive issues or whether there would be the right kind of personal chemistry between the two leaders, which is viewed as vital in Japan. Fear of ab..

Editorial Staff
comfort women , COVID-19 , free and open Indo-Pacific , Joe Biden , Quad , TPP , US-China rivalry
February 02,2021 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (January 2021)

Russian analysis at the end of 2020 and start of 2021 made clear Russia’s reality of becoming a junior partner to China, which was starting to eclipse the obsession with not being respected by the United States. On the one hand, two assumptions were widely acknowledged: that with Joe Biden in charge, Russo-US relations would further deteriorate, and that after Vladimir Putin broached th..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)
COVID-19 , free and open Indo-Pacific , Greater Eurasia , Joe Biden , Kurile Islands , Quad , RCEP
February 02,2021 Open Forum

Biden’s Asia Policymakers

Despite credit given to Donald Trump for toughening US policy toward China and even trying a new approach to North Korea, his approach to the Indo-Pacific was roundly condemned for: poor choice of officials and little coordination; disruption of alliances with distrust of multilateralism; discordant messages with idiosyncratic goals; and little presidential presence or articulation of values...

Editorial Staff
COVID-19 , free and open Indo-Pacific , Joe Biden , Quad Plus , Sharp power , US-ROK aliance
February 02,2021 Open Forum

The EU and China in 2021: Separate Discourses, Similar or Different Aims?

As the Biden administration seeks common ground across the Atlantic on China policy, it is timely to ask how similar or different are the objectives in the European Union and China in their relationship. An examination of the evolving discourse used to describe these ties serves as a starting point to grasp how differences have widened. Will this suffice for the US and the EU to find strong c..

Kerry Brown
Comprehensive strategic partnership , COVID-19 , EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment
January 21,2021 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (January 2021)

Attention drifted in November 2020 to January 2021 from the election of Joe Biden in the US to the visit of Chinese foreign Minister Wang Yi to action against the spreading of leaflets into North Korea to the handling of court decisions central to the dispute with Japan over the legacy of its occupation of Korea. Thus, fleeting concern with each of the four relationships at the core of Sout..

Sanghwa Hong
Anti-leaflet law , comfort women , COVID-19 , GSOMIA , Joe Biden , THAAD
December 30,2020 Special Forum

Introduction

There is every expectation that Joe Biden will replace Donald Trump’s diplomacy, with stress on multilateralism. In Europe, this clearly means a reemphasis on NATO. In the Indo-Pacific region, three options—which are not mutually exclusive—stand apart: trilateralism with Japan and South Korea; the Quad with Japan, Australia, and India; and outreach to China in search of a format for..

Editorial Staff
free and open Indo-Pacific , the Quad , US-China rivalry , US-DPRK diplomacy , values diplomacy
December 30,2020 Special Forum

Challenges to Biden’s pursuit of trilateralism

Trilateralism is the term used for US-Japan-ROK close strategic cooperation and understanding. For Tokyo and Seoul, trilateralism requires a fundamental reconceptualization of both national interests and national identities in the region closest to home—Northeast Asia. For Tokyo, the narrative toward this region has been driven by three symbols of identity: 1) slighting the 1990s Kono S..

Gilbert Rozman
ASEAN centrality , free and open Indo-Pacific , THAAD , the Quad , trilateralism , US-China rivalry , Wolf Warrior Diplomacy