In the recent words of U.S. President Joe Biden, the world stands “at an inflection point in history.” At stake is the future of the world order, with China’s coercive expansionism arguably posing the single biggest international challenge.
Biden claimed in his address to the nation on Aug. 31 that the country's precipitous exit from Afghanistan — which facilitated the Taliban's takeover of that country — would allow the United States to focus on its “serious competition with China.” In fact, a U.S. intelligence report in April named China the No. 1 national threat facing America.
Despite the fundamental continuity in the China policy that Biden inherited from his predecessor, Donald Trump, signs are growing that the president’s Afghan blunder has weakened his hand against Beijing, while opening greater strategic space for America’s main rival.