Biden's China policy is contradictory

'We now know that nations, like people, can go crazy. They may act on assumptions quite contrary to reality and plunge into unnecessary disasters." These are the first sentences written by John K. Fairbank in the introduction to Gary May's book, China Scapegoat: The Diplomatic Ordeal of John Carter Vincent. The book is the story of one of the three"Johns" who were blamed for the "loss of China" in the late 1940s.

Now in the 2020s, more than seven decades later, some American leaders blame former US president Richard Nixon for the broadly defined engagement with China. This first became evident during the Donald Trump administration, as in its first and only National Security Strategy report in 2017, it negated the assumption of a Sino-US engagement strategy.

Three years later, then US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, delivering a speech on the US' China policy at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, appeared to target Nixon for his engagement policy with China. And his emphasis that "the awakening is happening" had a strong Cold War tinge.