https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation-world/ct-aud-nw-nyt-joe-biden-china-20210217-tob6yfiahzd3danpq3ajrm5are-story.html

President Biden on ‘short leash’ as administration rethinks China relations

“The Biden administration is going to be on a very short leash with respect to doing anything that is perceived as giving China a break,” said Wendy Cutler, a vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute and a former U.S. trade negotiator.

“There will be repercussions for China, and he knows that,” Biden said. “What I’m doing is making clear that we, in fact, are going to continue to reassert our role as spokespersons for human rights at the U.N. and other — other agencies that have an impact on their attitude.”

Biden has begun staffing his cabinet with officials who have deep experience with China. Katherine Tai, the Biden administration’s nominee for trade representative, was in charge of litigating cases against China at the World Trade Organization during the Obama administration and has promised to take a tough line on enforcing U.S. trade rules.

The new administration has given few concrete details about how it will put its strategy into practice, including whether it will implement the many China-related executive orders that Trump introduced, like new restrictions on investments in Chinese companies with ties to the military and bans on Chinese-owned apps, like TikTok, WeChat and Alipay. Instead, the administration has said it would carry out a comprehensive review of Trump’s tariffs, export controls and other restrictions before making decisions.

Another uncertainty is how Biden and his team will handle Trump’s initial trade deal with China given that Beijing continues to fall short of its promise to buy hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. products. The administration may face the choice of using the deal’s enforcement mechanisms — which include consultations and more tariffs for Chinese products — or scrapping the agreement altogether.