President Joe Biden used to be a China dove and a war hawk. Now he’s a China hawk and seems averse to entering the United States into foreign wars.
On both of those scores, Biden has learned a lesson from former President Donald Trump, probably for the better.
Throughout the entire life of most living Americans, U.S. presidents have launched wars of choice, and they’ve typically been bad ideas.
Ronald Reagan invaded Grenada. George H.W. Bush did Panama, went to war with Saddam Hussein, and sent U.S. troops to Somalia. Bill Clinton did two Balkan wars plus continued Somalia. George W. Bush did Afghanistan and Iraq. Barack Obama did Libya and almost did Syria.
Trump showed us it was possible for a president not to enter the U.S. into any wars. He had to resist calls for a regime-change war in Syria.
Biden, who had been a hawk on Iraq, has, as president, followed Trump’s lead instead and resisted calls for deposing Bashar Assad in Syria. He has also been careful not to inject the U.S. military directly into the war Russia started by invading Ukraine.
It seems Biden is older and wiser than he used to be.
Also, Biden was famously soft on China in the past. He even traveled to China and said the U.S. doesn’t question its human rights abuses. The Obama-Biden administration also heavily subsidized Chinese state-owned businesses.
During the 2020 campaign, Biden attacked Trump for his economic warfare against China.
One reporter once asked Biden, “Some have said Trump’s stance is a good one to counter China’s influence. Would you keep the tariffs?”
“No. Hey, look, who said Trump’s idea’s a good one?” Biden replied. “Manufacturing has gone into a recession. Agriculture lost billions of dollars that taxpayers had to pay.” Biden promised to end Trump’s tariffs and mocked them:
Now Biden is very hawkish on China, basically perpetuating Trump’s economic warfare.
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Once again, Biden seems to have learned a valuable lesson from Trump: China is an adversary, and we should oppose China whenever possible.
