Biden Administration's Late-Stage China Policy: Decoupling and Management

Hayong Chung

Kyunghee University

hljung@khu.ac.kr

Since the beginning of 2023, the prevailing interpretation of U.S. policy toward China has shifted from a decoupling to de-risking strategy. U.S. Secretary of State Blinkon and Treasury Yellen's visit to China and Ambassador Kerry's visit are reported to have embodied de-risking strategies that emphasize cooperation and dialogues. However, since 2017, the U.S. policy stance on China has not changed at all in its strategy to exclude China. In domestic politics, bipartisan support for China's check policy is also strengthening. Despite the new term of de-risking, it is difficult to say that the U.S. policy against China has fundamentally changed, and rather, been strengthened in a more sophisticated form in certain areas. De-risking is to be understood as an American confidence in the effectiveness of policy against China and should be understood as a sophisticated decoupling policy.​