On January 20, local time, under the heavy guard of the National Guard, Democrat Biden was sworn in on the west side of the Capitol in Washington, DC, and officially became the 46th president of the United States.
American politics has finally turned a new page. Along with Biden, there are more than 20 cabinet members and cabinet-level members nominated by him, who may become influential figures in American and even global politics in the future.
Note: Except for the Vice President and the White House Chief of Staff, all other nominees need to be confirmed by a simple majority vote of the Senate before they can be elected.
Looking at the candidates nominated by Biden for the government team, there are two prominent features:
First, the return of the "establishment faction".During Trump’s four years in power, he used many business people and close relatives in an unconventional way, held high the banner of "American priority", and finally ended up with a torn domestic society and a weak international credibility. The Biden administration, on the other hand, tends to employ "veterans" with excellent professional background and political experience, in an effort to return the domestic and foreign policy-making of the United States to a more stable and predictable track of the "establishment".
Second, the degree of diversification is high.Biden’s cabinet will be one of the most diverse cabinet teams in American history. Among the 15 cabinet ministers nominated by Biden, women account for one third, which is higher than previous governments. The proportion of ethnic minorities is also much higher than the nominees of the Trump administration. If these nominations are confirmed by the Senate, the first female finance minister, the first African-American defense minister, the first Latino homeland security minister, the first aboriginal cabinet minister and the first openly gay cabinet minister will be born in American history.
In the current United States, the COVID-19 epidemic crisis is severe, social division and political polarization are intensifying. How will Biden’s elite cabinet team repair the domestic "scars"?Who can enter his "core staff circle" in key areas such as national security, diplomacy and economy? What kind of China policy team will Biden, who once called China a "special challenge"?
National security and diplomatic team: the return of "establishment" veterans
Among all the cabinet members of Biden, the nominees in the field of national security and diplomacy have the highest "priority". On November 23rd last year, the General Affairs Administration (GSA) under the US federal government informed Biden to officially start the power transition process, and Biden announced the nomination of members of his national security and foreign affairs cabinet the next day, saying that the team was a key symbol to show the world that "America is back", "Ready to lead the world, not retreat" and "Defend American values".
Judging from the candidates in this field, what all seven nominees have in common is that they all worked in the Obama administration and had different degrees of working experience with Biden, and they all belong to the "establishment" veteran with rich political experience.
Among the above nominees, Secretary of State-designate Blinken and National Security Assistant Sullivan may play a more important role in future U.S. foreign and security policy-making. As an "old acquaintance" of Biden for nearly 20 years, Blinken is Biden’s most important diplomatic adviser. After Biden decided to participate in the 2020 presidential election, Blinken became his chief foreign policy adviser and speech writer. Analysts predict that American diplomacy with Blinken at the helm will return to multilateralism, which is very consistent with Biden’s political ideas. Sullivan, another key figure, served as Biden’s national security adviser when he was vice president. In 2019, Sullivan wrote an article criticizing Trump’s "American priority" policy, and proposed that in the post-Trump era, on the one hand, the United States should mobilize all parties to deal with global threats, on the other hand, it needs to unite its allies to deal with threats from other big countries.
Economic Team: Concerned about Labor Rights and Challenges of Climate Change
In the context of the persistent wave of unemployment in the United States and the economic recession caused by the COVID-19 epidemic, Biden’s team believes that it is urgent to restore economic growth, support small enterprises with difficulties in survival, and solve the structural inequality in the economy.
Throughout Biden’s economic team nominees, women and ethnic minorities account for the majority. Finance Minister Yellen and Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Rouse are the best labor economists in the United States. Angus Deaton, the winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Economics and a professor at Princeton University in the United States, said in an exclusive interview with The Paper that it is very good that these senior positions are held by knowledgeable professionals. Yellen, Rouse and others have long been concerned about the labor market and American workers, and the new economic team may have a more pro-labor position than in the past four years. In addition, Biden’s nominated labor minister Walsh also has many years of trade union experience.
In addition to paying attention to labor rights and interests, Biden’s economic team has also put climate change into economic issues in a forward-looking way. Yellen previously advocated "promoting investment projects that can create jobs and meet the challenges of climate change"; When Biden introduced Routh, he also called her the chairman of the Economic Advisory Committee who knows best about climate policy. Tan Deng, the White House Director of Management and Budget, also said that he is prepared to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate clean energy production into the economic stimulus bill being formulated by his team.
Climate and Environment: Rising to "Urgent National Security Issues"
According to The New York Times’s statistics in November last year, during Trump’s four-year tenure, he overthrew more than 100 laws and regulations in the environmental field. Remarkably, the Trump administration also announced its formal withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement on November 4, 2020. Biden once said that on his first day in office, he would urge the United States to rejoin the agreement.
Tao Wenzhao, a researcher at the American Institute of China Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview with the media that "(this phenomenon) is mainly the difference in ideas between the two parties in the United States in dealing with climate change." Tao Wenzhao pointed out that from former US presidents Clinton, Obama and Biden, Democrats insisted that "climate change is a serious threat to human survival" and advocated the implementation of a low-carbon economy.
During Biden’s presidential campaign, former Secretary of State Kerry was a member of his climate working group. Biden’s transition team said that the appointment of Kerry as the president’s special envoy for climate means that Biden regards climate change as an "urgent national security issue."
Domestic affairs: promoting the reconstruction of order
During the Trump administration, American policy areas such as law, immigration, race and medical insurance were all impacted to varying degrees. Therefore, one of the key points of Biden’s administration is to promote the reconstruction of domestic order, but in the face of highly polarized American society, this task of Biden’s government may be very difficult.
Among them, Attorney General Garland and White House Domestic Policy Committee Rice will play a more holistic role. On the one hand, Biden’s nomination of Garland is intended to repair the criminal justice system that was "politicized" instead of "neutral" during Trump’s administration. According to the analysis of CNN, Garland is an blameless "depoliticization" choice of both parties, which can reshape the "independence" and "integrity" of the judiciary.
On the other hand, rice, an experienced foreign policy official, was unexpectedly appointed as the director of the domestic policy Committee. But Biden’s advisers said that Biden’s choice showed the importance of domestic policy on his agenda. The analysis pointed out that Rice will exert greater influence in the fields of fighting epidemic, immigration, medical insurance and racial equality.
Health and wellness: alleviating the epidemic crisis in COVID-19.
Dealing with the COVID-19 epidemic crisis is an urgent task after Biden took office. On 14th, Biden put forward an economic stimulus plan for COVID-19 epidemic with a total amount of 1.9 trillion US dollars. As of January 20th, local time, the cumulative number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States exceeded 24 million, and the cumulative death toll exceeded 400,000, ranking first in the world.
In December last year, when Biden made his first public appearance with his health team, he announced three 100-day anti-epidemic plans after taking office: he planned to require the American people to wear masks within these 100 days, and the government would vaccinate the people with at least 100 million doses of vaccine and let students return to school as soon as possible. Biden said that the plan was formulated with Fauci, a well-known infectious disease expert in the United States, and Fauci will also be the chief medical consultant in Biden’s government.
Newly established Asian affairs post: how will China policy be reshaped?
In terms of China policy, Biden’s administration set up a new post of "Indo-Pacific Coordinator" in the White House National Security Council, responsible for China affairs, South Asia affairs and East Asia and Oceania affairs, and appointed Kurt Campbell, a senior foreign policy expert, to this post. The analysis points out that this newly created position will play a leading role in Biden’s Asian policy, so some people call Campbell "the czar of Asia", and he, Secretary of State-designate Blinken and National Security Assistant Sullivan may become the "troika" that will influence the future US China policy.
The Financial Times quoted a source as saying that Biden set up this new position in part because he hoped to better integrate the China policies of foreign policy, national defense and economic departments under the leadership of an Asian affairs expert.
In addition, Biden appointed Lola Rosenberg as the newly established "Senior Director of China Affairs" in the National Security Council. Rosenberg is familiar with Northeast Asia and China affairs. She served as the director of China and North Korea affairs of the National Security Council in the Obama administration, and she will report to Campbell in the future.
Judging from the current personnel ratio of the National Security Council, the number of personnel in charge of Asian affairs is three times that of the European department, and it has become the main force of the National Security Council. In 2005, the two departments were similar in size, which is enough to show the importance of Asian affairs to Biden’s government.
Kurt Campbell
As a senior foreign policy expert, Campbell served as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 2009 to 2013, and was widely regarded as the key designer of the "Return to Asia" strategy during the Obama era.
Michael Green, Campbell’s long-time friend and senior vice president of Asian affairs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), recently wrote that Biden’s choice of Campbell for this post is an important recognition of the strategies of the Democratic and Republican parties in China and Asia. According to a survey conducted by CSIS in August 2020, there is a broad consensus in the US Congress and foreign policy circles that it is necessary to strengthen relations with allies, protect key technologies, and put pressure on China on human rights and democracy issues.Campbell, who has a close relationship with Republicans, has played an important role as a link between the two parties in Asia policy.Green also believes that Campbell’s strategy of "returning to Asia" is still the core of the consensus of Biden’s new team and congressional leaders of both parties.
From 2018 to now, Campbell and a group of scholars studying Sino-US relations have published a series of influential articles in the American diplomatic community; Campbell also played an important role in pushing American policy circles to reflect on American strategy toward China. With regard to how to interact with China, Campbell pointed out in his articles in recent two years that it is necessary to abandon the unilateralist foreign policy characterized by punishment, improve relations with European and Asian allies, and seek cooperation with China on global challenges such as climate change, so as to restore the confidence of the international community in American leadership.
