How the Biden administration has fared on Ukraine, Taiwan, China, and more: Former U.S. official
Susan Ashton Thornton, former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian & Pacific Affairs, joins a Yahoo Finance Live special on the Biden presidency to discuss the state of foreign affairs between the U.S. and Russia, Ukraine, Taiwan, China, and other countries.
Video Transcript
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ADAM SHAPIRO: President Biden's first year in office has been littered with one foreign policy headache after another. There was the messy exit from Afghanistan, the ongoing tension with China, and, of course, Russia's growing ambitions in its own backyard, its microaggressions towards Ukraine. To discuss the challenges ahead, we invite into the stream Professor Susan Ashton Thornton, former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and a professor at Yale. Thank you for being here.
And what is-- not looking back, but looking forward, the most urgent foreign affairs issue for the Biden administration? Is it Russia? And is it the situation with Ukraine?
Yeah, I think it's safe to say, Adam, that it is the situation with Russia right now. I mean, we've got Tony Blinken is in Europe trying to solve this problem. It's really unfortunate that this crisis has been sort of generated by the Russians. The timing is a little bit, odd not really explainable. And they've given us a very short deadline. So they're manufacturing basically an atmosphere of crisis. And so I think it is something that is going to take the full attention right now.
- What's the report card you'd give the administration on its handling of this issue?
SUSAN ASHTON THORNTON: Well, I think this is an issue where the administration's been pretty reactive. I mean, this crisis with Ukraine in some ways has been going on for quite a long time, probably really since the end of the Soviet Union, certainly since 2014 when Crimea was taken by the Russians. But the reason that it's coming up now in such an urgent way is really driven by Vladimir Putin.
And I think what I'd like to see is a little bit more sort of scope for diplomacy being given from both sides. I mean, both sides have kind of said that their positions are immutable. And that doesn't really leave much space for diplomacy. It's not really clear how we can get out of that without the conflict that Vladimir Putin seems to be promising us he has up his sleeve.
ADAM SHAPIRO: So let's move a little bit south from Russia and take a look at China. The relations with China, you know, troubling. And a lot of people-- you would know better than those of us who worry about it. But there's talk that maybe China makes a move on Taiwan. Where do we stand in that? And how would the US respond? Is it even a real potential threat?
SUSAN ASHTON THORNTON: Well, I think the Chinese have a lot of reasons to be looking to try to maintain some stability in the Taiwan Strait over certainly the next year and several years. They're not looking for a fight in Taiwan. And I think there's been a lot of chatter, if you will, kind of mutual recriminations about Taiwan between the US and China. But I think after the last meeting between President Biden and Xi Jinping in China, there was a certain stabilizing effect where basically Xi Jinping said that China will be patient and wants to pursue peaceful efforts there. And the US has reiterated its long-standing policy, which has been so successful with respect to Taiwan for the last 40 years. So I'm hopeful that certainly this year in 2022, there's big things on the domestic calendar for both the US and China. So I'm not looking to see that there's going to be a conflict over Taiwan in the immediate future.
- Specifically on China, on the one hand, it feels like the Biden administration has continued the policies of the Trump administration-- maybe not with the same rhetoric, but along the same path. And yet we've heard the president say consistently, this is about competition. But there are areas for cooperation like issues on climate.
You think they can continue to toe that line, especially given Xi's growing power? When you think about the end of the year, he's up for a third term yet again. Can the US continue to sort of navigate this in the way they have, at least in the first year of the administration?
SUSAN ASHTON THORNTON: Yeah, I mean, the way I kind of characterized what's happened in the first year is it's a sort of a drift between the US and China. Really the Biden administration has focused on domestic strengthening, strengthening and rebuilding relations with our allies, following on some damage that was done by the previous administration, rejoining international institutions like the Paris Climate Accord, for example, and really hasn't been very specific about what it's going to do with China.
You know, we have a lingering trade war really that's not been altered in any way under the Biden administration. The tariffs are still there. So it's really kind of been minimal communication, working in these other areas, and letting the China approach kind of drift. I think in the next year, in 2022 and maybe even following that in 2023, there may be some chances to do a bit more substantively in terms of with China on issues that you mentioned like climate change, maybe some other transnational issues.
But for right now, I think the Biden administration is really focused in on the domestic strengthening, working on some aspects of support for US industry that they feel needs to be more competitive with the view toward China's future developments in technology, et cetera, working with the allies on that project. Trying to sort of work with others to build a coalition to kind of contain and isolate China in areas that they're concerned about. And so it seems to not really be working with China so much at this point.
ADAM SHAPIRO: We appreciate your joining us for this look at not only the first year of the Biden administration, but also a look ahead. Susan Ashton Thornton is a former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and a professor at Yale University.
