So Much for That 'Thaw' with China

Biden would like to get credit for trying to repair deteriorating relations with China, but he isn’t prepared to do anything that would give hawkish detractors ammunition against him.

The Biden administration clarified that rumors of its reasonableness were greatly exaggerated:

The US said it has no plans to lift sanctions on Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu, appearing to backtrack on comments made a day earlier by President Joe Biden while he attended the Group of Seven summit in Japan.

Speaking to reporters in Washington on Monday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller denied the US government was entertaining the idea of lifting sanctions on Li.

It isn’t surprising that the Biden administration won’t lift sanctions in this case, but it is a mistake all the same. Biden would like to get credit for trying to repair deteriorating relations with China, but he isn’t prepared to do anything that would give hawkish detractors ammunition against him. It is a familiar pattern that we have seen many times over the last two years. Biden refuses to offer sanctions relief even when doing so would advance his administration’s stated goals, and as a result the U.S. makes no diplomatic progress. The president can talk about a “thaw” all he likes, but there won’t be a thaw if he can’t show some flexibility.