Why China's hard-line position on human rights is a strategic folly

Minxin Pei is professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and a nonresident senior fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Those unnerved by the rapid escalation of tensions between the U.S. and China in the last few years can be forgiven for feeling relieved that the incoming Joe Biden administration will adopt a more nuanced China strategy dramatically different from Donald Trump's scorched-earth approach.