it was a highly anticipated call
in his first phone conversation with
chinese president xi jinping
u.s president joe biden criticized what
he sees as quote
unfair economic practices at the same
time he announced that heavy tariffs
would remain in place
and new restrictions for certain
technology exports may be
implemented china stressed the need to
uphold dialogue and
called for tolerance of differing
political views
it was the first phone call between the
u.s and chinese presidents
since last march
a short while ago i spoke to fraser
howie china analyst and book author and
i asked him
what in the call struck him as most
interesting in terms of economic
and trade policy sure well i think the
most obvious thing is that he isn't
winding back
the the trade measures that trump had
put in place you know biden has been
done a lot of executive orders rolling
back the damage that he sees that trump
has done
and yeah when it comes to tariffs when
it comes to sanctions on chinese
companies they're all still very much in
force
and he certainly isn't letting his guard
down and there's no back to normal
um or back to usual when it comes to
china
is it wise then uh to keep up this tough
stance on china keeping up the terrors
even announcing new restrictions on
technology exports
well a case of it defines a wise if you
like in the sense that
china for many years has been taking
liberties in the world economy
geopolit geopolitically has been taking
liberties in south china sea
repression in xinjiang tibet and now
almost obviously in hong kong
um and so from that they all deserve a
response
and i think it's been basically the west
and the rest of the world have just
failed to respond earlier
so i wouldn't say it's not a case of
being wise or not these measures have
ultimately been long overdue
a u.s official said president biden's
dealing with beijing would be quote
practical
hard-headed and clear-eyed what does
china expect that to mean
i think to be honest i think they're
guessing i think trump was very
easy to read because trump basically
wanted trump's name and lights
and as much attention around him as
possible he wanted to be flattered and
and adored and so that was very easy to
play to trump i think buying is going to
be much harder he's not going to fall
they're not going to be able to flatter
mr trump
i think they're going he's going to be
much tougher on china because he's going
to be coordinated more coordinated on
china and try and work with allies
so i think the chinese are very
concerned as to where
things are going to go nevertheless
chinese officials have expressed
cautious optimism that
relations with the us will improve under
president biden
do you share this optimism and if so in
which areas could dice be thawing
look i i think obviously these are
everyone
expresses optimism to start with then
the reality hits
i think though there's clearly going to
be a difference or of well
biden is certainly going to be tough
there's going to be more coordinated
it's going to be a much more civil
dialogue it's going to be a much more
logical dialogue
it's not going to be the the the the the
fire and
thunder of of the trump years with a lot
of noise sound and fury
so it's going to be a much more of civil
type of discussion
there's clearly areas where they need to
work together as the world's two largest
economies they obviously have a huge
role to play in the global economy
um in terms of climate change pandemic
there's a number of areas where
they will need to at least pull in the
right direction if not outright
cooperate
so they will have to work together but
at the same time
america is going to be much much tougher
for china to handle going forward
frazier how do you see u.s china
relations in the immediate future then
it doesn't look like beijing is willing
to make any concessions when it comes to
human rights
the state of hong kong or taiwan or
other areas where the us and
its allies are putting pressure on china
yeah no i don't think i don't see we're
going to see any concessions immediately
of china
i think in the states as well nothing's
going to be rolled back i think there's
probably going to be a bit of a status
quo nothing new
in the immediate future biden's one
going to want to get all his team in
place
have a thorough review of where things
stand and then move it forward so
i would have not quite a honeymoon
period but i don't expect any major
moves in the immediate term
frasier howie thank you for your
thoughts
thank you very much