Tense confrontation
Before Joe Biden took office, there was a wave of cautious optimism that he would return America to its original foreign policy commitments. For most nations, this would mean returning to a time before American diplomacy became more transactional during the Trump era. China, however, did not share this optimism of the Biden-era. It's top think tanks and commentators had warned against any delusions that a change in leadership would mean an end to the growing antagonism between the US and China. The sentiment of considering China a serious threat to the US is not exclusive to Trump and the Republicans after all. Indeed, for the most part, it would not be an exaggeration to say that opposition to China is one of the greatest uniting factors in American politics today. Republicans and Democrats alike find plenty of common ground when it comes to Beijing's aggressive economic policies, human rights violations and foreign policy moves.
This meant that Biden's scope of seeking rapprochement with China in any meaningfully significant way was small from the very beginning. Taking any overly friendly stances towards China would immediately risk significant backlash in Congress. As it were, Biden does not seem to currently hold any real plans to seek improved ties with China. Traditional flashpoints between the two nations — the trade war, Chinese tech companies, Taiwan, India, Hong Kong, Xianjing, the pandemic, etc., all remain in play. What has changed is that Biden is seeking a slightly more nuanced stance on China by seeking cooperation on a few issues. Chief amongst these issues is climate change and arms control. The US wishes to engage China as it does/ did Russia in reaching a common working ground on a few issues and using them to offer limited scope for diplomacy.
That said, true closing of the distance between the two nations is unlikely to be on the cards any time soon. Congress is moving fast to come up with ever newer legislation that would allow the US to seriously compete with China abroad by broad investments in innovation, manufacturing, strategic alliances and partnerships. Biden has also set to sign an executive order that would facilitate the US seeking a new supply chain to circumvent Chinese dominance on particular supply chains such as those related to tech. The idea is to meet the challenge of China whenever and wherever possible and regain ground America has lost as the centre of international politics to China. Alongside this, the US has turned up the rhetoric against China's human rights violations with tense calls between Biden and Jinping on the same. Finally, there is a growing matter of Taiwan. Observers have stated that China is done playing games in regards to Taiwan. The illusion of peaceful assimilation promised under the 'One Country- Two Systems' policy no longer exists as Taiwan has the example of Hong Kong. To be clear, this policy has not softened the divide between Taiwan and China ever since it was first introduced under Deng Xiaoping. But it did keep up the possible hope that such a thing could be possible. Now China is no longer interested in subtle rhetoric and has outright warned other nations of serious consequences for interfering in the matter of Taiwan. In recent months, China has also been more interested in sending an ever more hostile message to Taiwan with its constant naval exercises and airforce fly-bys. This is in turn has turned up the pressure on the US to take a definite stance in regards to Taiwan. The US has never formally taken a stance in regards to the island nation, preferring an ambiguous relationship that leaves open the scope of increased ties with China. Now, if the US is serious in its commitment to keeping Taiwan safe from a Chinese invasion, the US will have to take a much stronger stance to dissuade China from making any moves based on the calculation that the US would not interfere. Among all the other approaching flashpoints for this volatile relationship, Taiwan is perhaps more incendiary than others.
