Pete Buttigieg as potential China Ambassador? What to expect
By: Xiaodong Fang
Tags: Politics, Biden, Pete Buttigieg, President, China

President-elect Joe Biden is considering Pete Buttigieg as his pick for Ambassador to China, according to Axios. The 38-year-old has an impressive journey. He is gay, a veteran of the Afghanistan War, the former Mayor of South Bend, a Harvard graduate, a McKinsey consultant, and a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.

Following the report of Buttigieg’s potential Ambassadorship, Chinese social media has translated and spread the story in China, which implied that he would push the issue of LGBTQ+ rights in China.

What are the positions of Pete Buttigieg on the China issues? How would “Ambassador Pete” contribute to the worsening U.S.- China relations?

Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

In general, Buttigieg’s attitudes of China are mixed based on his rhetoric in the 2020 campaign trail. Align with Biden, Buttigieg mentioned cooperation with China on areas of common concern, including climate change. However, Buttigieg also leveled harsh criticisms at China’s challenges to the United States, which may lead to internal rifts between the President-elect and the potential Ambassador to China.

Trade War

Buttigieg might not agree with Biden’s decision to “inherit” Trump’s trade war with China. In an interview with CNN, Buttigieg called Trump’s China tariffs “a fool’s errand” and planned to ease Trump’s pressure and end the tariffs imposed on Chinese goods. Apparently, the potential China Ambassador would directly contradict the President-elect, who just told The New York Times he will not make any ‘immediate moves’ to lift trade war tariffs with China.

Competition

Both Biden and Buttigieg called China a “competitor,” but they are different in terms of the cause of competition. Biden’s labeling of China as a “serious competitor” can be seen as a rebuttal of Trump, who called China a “foe,” or a differentiation of Russia, which he called an “opponent.” Biden’s version of competition involves the pledging to improve the relation with China.

Photo by Carlos Esteves on Unsplash

Buttigieg’s version of “competition” is on the level of political system, which seems more ideological than Biden’s pragmatism. As a presidential candidate, Buttigieg called for investing in infrastructure, education, and artificial intelligence to better compete with China and dampen the appeal of its political system.

Multilateralism

How to include (or exclude) China in the proposed multilateral world will probably become the biggest clash between the two Democrats. In a 2019 Democratic debate, Buttigieg warned that if elected president, he would “lead a worldwide boycott of China if the regime resorted to the bloody tactics against Hong Kong protesters that were used more than 30 years ago against protesters in Beijing.” He also considered boycotting the 2022 Beijing Olympics over China’s human rights abuses, which should lead to the “total isolation” of China from the free world.

Photo by Oleh Aleinyk on Unsplash

However, President-elect Biden wouldn’t embrace the multilateral policy that excludes China. As the first priority of the Biden Presidency is to beat COVID-19, the Biden-Harris plan will “restore our relationship with the World Health Organization,” and “rebuilding the CDC office in Beijing.”

Things always change

Regardless of the harsh rhetoric on China, Buttigieg may still follow the Biden administration’s general approach towards China. Not only because the Ambassador is nominated by the President, but also because of their personal relationship within the Democratic Party.

As one of the front-runners after the Iowa Caucuses, Pete Buttigieg dropped out of the Democratic nominating race in March, which boosted Joe Biden’s candidacy against the left-wing Bernie Sanders.

Also, campaign rhetoric will not necessarily become a source of policymaking. Attacks on one issue shouldn’t be interpreted as the universal negative attitude on all issues regarding China. As the President-elect Joe Biden’s China policy is unclear, now it is too early to predict the contribution of the potential China Ambassador.

Related: The Paradox of Trump’s Anti-China Rhetoric