Biden shifts China policy toward deterrence

Bid to counter Beijing's narrative of U.S. decline

Lionel Barber

November 23, 2021 05:00 JST

Joe Biden meets virtually with Xi Jinping from the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Nov. 15: Biden has accepted Trump's diagnosis but not the prescription of dealing with China's strategic threat. © AP

Lionel Barber is former editor of the Financial Times. He is author of "The Powerful and the Damned: Private Diaries in Turbulent Times."

Nothing is guaranteed to produce a more visceral reaction among Biden administration officials than China's official narrative that the U.S. is enfeebled and on the path to decline.