Biden seizes chance to confront tensions with China and Russia

When the White House announced this week that no American officials would attend the upcoming winter Olympics in Beijing, officials were hesitant to label the decision a “boycott,” wary of drawing parallels to Jimmy Carter’s move in 1980 preventing even American athletes from participating in the Moscow games at the height of the Cold War.

Comparison to that long stretch of frigid superpower competition isn’t welcome in the Biden administration, which downplays those similarities to current global threats. Biden himself told the United Nations earlier this year he was not seeking to divide the world into “rigid blocks,” though he repeatedly describes an existential battle between democracies and autocracies.

Speaking with leaders like Putin and China’s Xi Jinping, while also trying to convince allies to form a united front against them, has proved an enduring element of Biden-era foreign policy as he seeks to keep worsening relations with Russia and China from toppling over into open conflict.

The White House insists Thursday’s democracy summit isn’t meant as a challenge to any single country or leader, even if some appear to be interpreting it that way.

Yet the list of invitees — which includes Taiwan — has already generated anger in China, which insisted it, too, was a democracy.

“We see the summit’s goals as being about much more than any one government,” a senior administration official said on Tuesday in previewing the gathering. “The summit really aims to bring together a diverse group of participants to build a shared foundation for democratic renewal, and we think it’s a strong story to tell.”

Originally conceived when he was a candidate hoping to rebut then-President Donald Trump’s embrace of global strongmen, the meeting will be centered around three pillars: strengthening democracy and defending against authoritarianism, fighting corruption and promoting respect for human rights, officials said. They explained the invite list — which includes some countries with poor track records on human rights, like Pakistan — was designed to highlight democracy at all levels of society, not just in national government.

During the summit, Biden won’t shy away from acknowledging recent struggles in the United States on upholding its own democracy, according to officials involved in planning the event, who cited Biden’s past criticism of Trump’s false allegations widespread election fraud as something he could repeat during his two appearances at the virtual gathering.

“The President has been absolutely clear that protecting Americans’ constitutional rights and the integrity of our elections from the systematic assault that folks — in particular, Republican legislators — have been engaged in across the country is a must and that this historic threat requires strong voting rights legislation. And you’ll hear that from the President again this week,” an official said.

Democracy vs. autocracy

Proving democracy can better deliver than autocracy has been the underpinning of Biden’s entire foreign policy and the driving theme of his two trips abroad so far.

Yet sour domestic politics and persistent inequality have provided an opening for countries like Russia and China to criticize American-style democracy as flawed, seeking to undermine Biden as he works to rally the world against authoritarianism. China’s state council released a paper over the weekend titled “China: Democracy that works,” despite the country not holding elections for its leaders and banning opposition political parties.

Putin, meanwhile, has claimed the arrest of rioters involved in the January 6 insurrection attempt at the US Capitol amounts to a crackdown on dissent, adopting a talking point used by Republicans who have defended the event as a peaceful protest.

As he began a two-hour-and-one-minute phone call with Putin on Tuesday, arranged to warn of dire economic consequences should he move ahead with an invasion of Ukraine, Biden made clear he wanted to see the Russian leader again soon.

“I hope the next time we meet we do it in person,” Biden told Putin as the talks got underway, Biden sitting in the basement White House Situation Room and Putin beaming in from his dacha on the Black Sea.

“It was a useful meeting,” Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said afterward, saying Biden warned Putin he is ready to take steps the US previously avoided should he decide to move ahead with an invasion.

“Things we did not do in 2014, we are prepared to do now,” Biden told Putin, according to Sullivan.

It was a notable message given Biden’s own recommendations when he was vice president to then-President Barack Obama that the US increase lethal aid to Ukraine and force severe economic pain on Russia — steps that met resistance from other administration officials.

Rallying the free world

Now, Biden says he is prepared to go further. If they are issued, sanctions are likely to go after top Russian oligarchs, limiting their ability to travel and potentially cutting off access to American banking and credit card systems. Officials have also been weighing disconnecting Russia from the SWIFT international payment system, upon which Russia remains heavily reliant, a “nuclear” option that would inflict serious economic damage.

Biden spent the evening prior to his call working to convince European leaders to join him in threatening withering economic sanctions on Russia should Putin decide to invade Ukraine, despite fears the Russian President could tighten gas supplies to Europe as the weather turns colder.

Since then, Biden and his team have strived to bring the relationships with Russia and China into more predictable terrain, including by arranging summits between Biden and their leaders.

The difficulties of the approach are also becoming plain.