Jakarta
In the first part of my analysis published on Jan. 22, I discussed the many big challenges United States President Joe Biden is facing. On the domestic front, there are the COVID-19 pandemic, economic crisis and disunity among Americans. This will create restraint and difficulty for him to act in international affairs. I predict we will tend to see the return of the “pivot” strategy in East Asia, mainly because many of Biden’s foreign security experts are the same people from the team in Barack Obama’s administration. Biden understands that East Asia is now the most strategic region for the US to play a more defining role. Previously under Obama, we expected the US to pivot from the Middle East to East Asia, but that did not happen. In the meantime, US public opinion about China has changed — from peaceful competitor to unfriendly strategic opponent...