Xi’s madness can manifest itself in increasingly aggressive moves in his region and beyond, including an invasion of Taiwan. Xi has helped elevate millions of people into the middle class, but what if he can’t live up to the middle class expectations? His authoritarian nationalism has prompted the United States to erect trade barriers and impose export controls. A growing level of US corporate investment can no longer be assumed. How does Xi react to the hostile environment he has created?
The United States, democracy and liberalism are now winning, and the problems of authoritarianism, both national and international, are exposed. But Biden will have to thread a series of needles to make sure the wounded extremists don’t take the world down with them.
The stress of this situation does not seem to weigh heavily on Biden and his team.
I would describe this government’s methodology with this phrase: constant and increasing pressure. When Putin first invaded Ukraine, the US was hesitant to acknowledge the ways in which it militarily aided the defenders. But it has been steadily ramping up the pressure, from offering Stinger anti-aircraft missiles from Ukraine to supplying Patriot air defense systems and armored fighting vehicles. Utilities, report my colleaguesthe Biden administration is considering helping Ukrainians go after Russian sanctuaries in Crimea.
The Biden administration does not seem to be trying to decouple the US and Chinese economies. A healthy Chinese economy is in America’s interest for the sake of global stability. But the Biden administration has continued to ramp up pressure on China’s nationalistic tendencies, trying to hold back Chinese development in areas such as computers, biotechnology and biomanufacturing.
Biden’s pressure on Republicans follows the same incremental and steady pattern. Many of the infrastructure projects financed by recent legislation are now starting. You can look forward to seeing the president at event after event, such as the one he did with Mitch McConnell in Covington, Ky., to tout new funding for the Brent Spence Bridge.
The goal is to show the American people that the government works and that Biden himself deserves re-election. Biden goes after GOP extremism, but he hopes to make his own competence the center of his election argument.
Bill Clinton’s administration was forever associated with the word “triangulation” – going beyond left and right. The word to associate with Biden should be “calibration” – so much pressure but not too much. It’s a tricky thing. We’ll see if it works.