The US-China race for hegemony has not disappeared Joe Biden will not hesitate to give a "Fire" command

On February 8, President Joe Biden delivered his second State of the Union address to Congress, marking the halfway point of his tenure. It was an opportunity for him to highlight his administration’s achievements to date, as well as set the tone for how he hopes the next two, possibly more, years go.

Given the current downing ratings of the Biden administration, this should not come as a surprise. In his recent speech, President Biden mainly focused on his administration's economic achievements, avoiding mentioning his intentions to run for the next term in 2024. Biden has been upbeat on his economic policies after recent reports showed near-record low unemployment and strong job growth, but his speech exhibited his broader ambitions to reshape the economy into one that grows “from the bottom up and the middle out, not from the top down.”

Although president Biden’s remarks regarding tax policy and call for levying a tax on billionaires and corporate stock buybacks to reduce the federal deficit faced criticism from the Republican party members, many people outside of the US mainly were keen to hear president Biden's remarks regarding the US current state of international security, Ukraine, and Russia. During his previous speech in 2022, Joe Biden particularly criticized Russia for its unprovoked war against Ukraine and its consequences for the global market. However, in his recent remarks, Biden only four times mentioned Vladimir Putin, not Russia, and the Ukraine war.

Instead, President Biden several times mentioned China, as Washington-Beijing relations have been strained in the last year. The deterioration peaked with the Chinese spy balloon flying over the US territory a few days ago, which was hit by an accurate hit of F-22. The incident added more fuel to the current tensions, which resulted in the cancellation of the upcoming visit of State Secretary Anthony Blinken to Beijing. Nonetheless, the opposition Republican party accused the Biden administration of failing to quick demonstration of force against the spy balloon and downgrading the image of the US Air defence forces.

Undoubtedly, such an incident harshly affected the Biden administration’s reputation. According to experts, these surveillance airships, operated in part by the Chinese Peoples’ Liberation Army air force, have been spotted in over five countries in 2022, including Japan, India, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines.

As for Beijing, it believes it is in what some observers have called a “hyper-competitive” contest, both economically and militarily, with the US and that China's only possible way to compete is to preserve the one-party rule. Personally, for Chinese leader Xi Jinping it is a good chance to promote himself as a mighty leader that is able to consolidate entire China and the party resources on the one hand. This is apparent in the vision for the Peoples’ Liberation Army (PLA) that Xi laid out in his speech to the 20th Party Congress last October, which was thin on specifics but uncompromising when it came to building a 21st-century PLA.

Even though China pursues a more assertive policy to boost its defence industry and turn it into one of the most modernized armies in the world that employ sophisticated techniques like Artificial intelligence (AIAI), human-machine hybrid intelligence or high technology, it seems a bit unrealistic. This is mainly because, since 2022, the US tightened controls over high-technology exports, like advanced microchips to China.

Hence, during the speech, President Biden underlined that the US prevented China from becoming a global military power that could challenge the US and its allies during his administration. Simply put, the Biden administration acknowledges the competition with China but avoids a direct military confrontation. The current vision of the Biden administration also suggests that Washington will seek cooperation with China on a broad spectrum of fields unless it does not contradict the US national interests.

However, the opposition in Congress is doubtful that the US maintains superiority over China in military technologies given the recent revelation about China’s nuclear capability in a letter from the top commander of US nuclear forces, which is a warning that Beijing's arsenal is expanding faster than anticipated. “This should serve as a wake-up call for the United States,” said House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers.

President Joe Biden’s speech indeed was a warning signal to Beijing that its attempts to overshadow the US hegemony will not be tolerated, though the space for diplomatic manoeuvres is still available. Hence, Beijing will likely keep a low profile in an arms race with the US for a while but is unlikely to retreat from its position to become an undisputed superpower in the near future.