Cover Story: The Monumental Challenges Facing Biden

After a bruising election that former President Donald Trump and his allies tried to overturn, Joe Biden was sworn in final week because the forty sixth president of the United States, wrapping up one of the crucial dramatic political transitions in American historical past.

Now, the true work begins for the 78-year-old Democrat, who faces the world’s worst Covid-19 pandemic, deepening home political fissures, fractured worldwide relations and the necessity to make up for 4 years of misplaced time in responding to the worldwide local weather disaster.

“There is no time to waste when it comes to tackling the crises we face,” Biden wrote in one of many first tweets from his official presidential account.

The president and his cupboard face a confluence of challenges as they kick off the primary 100 days of the brand new administration. The world’s largest economic system is struggling its worst public well being disaster because the Covid-19 pandemic has claimed greater than 400,000 American lives and ravaged companies. The nation can be scuffling with the havoc wreaked by polarization and racial tensions. And the world is carefully watching how the brand new authorities would try to revive America’s international function after 4 years of retreat from worldwide cooperation beneath the Trump administration.

Biden’s picks of key figures for his overseas coverage crew make clear his intention to refocus on Asia, analysts stated. Compared with home points the place the brand new president faces severe political obstacles, overseas coverage might provide extra room for fast progress, they stated.

“This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge. And unity is the path forward,” Biden stated Jan. 20 in his inauguration speech.

Hours after the inauguration, Biden signed a flurry of government orders, actions and memorandums aimed toward quickly addressing the pandemic and dismantling a lot of Trump’s insurance policies. They included reversing Trump’s journey ban concentrating on many Muslim international locations, reforming immigration insurance policies, imposing a masks mandate on federal property, ramping up vaccination provides and requiring worldwide vacationers to supply proof of a detrimental Covid-19 check earlier than coming into the U.S. He can be transferring to reverse Trump-era environmental rollbacks and rejoin the Paris local weather accord whereas repairing U.S. relations with the World Trade Organization.

Biden’s cupboard is lauded as certainly one of most various in historical past with a report variety of girls and girls of colour. Vice President Kamala Harris is the primary Black and South Asian American and first girl to carry the place.

Covid response

The most urgent activity dealing with the Biden administration is to deliver the pandemic beneath management. The virus has sickened greater than 25 million Americans over the previous yr, and the demise toll is on monitor to exceed 500,000 subsequent month, by far the best complete for any nation.

The outbreak confirmed indicators of easing throughout the summer time however rebounded within the fall. According to information from Johns Hopkins University, greater than 27,000 new Covid-19 deaths had been reported within the first 10 days of 2021, placing January on monitor to turn out to be the deadliest month to this point.

During his marketing campaign, Biden repeatedly declared his high precedence could be containing the pandemic based mostly on science and details. His first government order was to mandate masks sporting on federal property and in interstate journey. He additionally ordered quarantines for vacationers arriving in America along with a coverage introduced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requiring virus exams for worldwide vacationers, efficient Jan. 26. Before the inauguration, Biden additionally rejected Trump’s plan to rescind journey bans on the EU, U.Ok. and Brazil.

He nominated California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as the primary Latino to guide the sprawling Health and Human Services Department. Top infectious ailments skilled Dr. Anthony Fauci is to proceed as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases whereas serving because the president’s chief medical adviser on Covid-19.

A key a part of Biden’s Covid response might be to rapidly ramp up vaccinations. Biden set a aim administering 100 million Covid-19 vaccine doses in 100 days, that means the nation wants to maneuver 5 to 6 instances quicker than its earlier tempo.

As a part of a $1.9 trillion financial aid proposal submitted by Biden to Congress, $400 billion could be for virus management, together with $20 billion designated to fund the common free vaccination program, $50 billion to develop virus testing and $130 billion to help within the secure reopening of colleges.

But some consultants stated they’re involved that Biden’s virus aid plan nonetheless lacks particulars to information implementation, comparable to measures to make sure vaccine provides and manufacturing of vital medical gear, in addition to monitoring the vaccination progress of particular person states.

According to the World Health Organization, a rustic can obtain herd immunity in opposition to Covid-19 solely when vaccinations cowl a minimum of 70% of the inhabitants. Biden’s 100 million-dose aim is much from sufficient for a rustic of 330 million, stated Zhang Wenhong, a Shanghai-based infectious illness specialist.

Biden signed a slew of government orders, actions and memorandums hours after his inauguration.

Reviving the economic system

Congress rolled out rounds of financial aid plans totaling $4 trillion for the reason that pandemic hit, however that’s nonetheless not sufficient to bail out the economic system from harm induced by the pandemic and the Trump administration’s commerce insurance policies.

A January survey of economists by The Wall Street Journal turned up estimates that the U.S. economic system shrank 2.5% in 2020 and projections it might rebound to 4.3% enlargement in 2021. Although the 2021 forecast is greater than the economists made a month earlier, some analysts stated a surge of unemployment and bankruptcies brought on by the pandemic may need triggered better financial and monetary dangers.

America’s unemployment fee stood at 6.7% in December, down from a peak of 14.7% throughout the pandemic. However, officers on the Federal Reserve stated the jobless fee among the many poorest might have topped 20% as sectors together with catering and hospitality had been hit hardest. The nation’s shopper confidence indicator dropped to a four-month low in December.

Biden’s $1.9 trillion virus aid package deal unveiled Jan. 14 contains direct money handouts to the general public, a greater than doubling of the federal minimal wage, subsidies to chose sectors and monetary help to companies and states.

But there are uncertainties whether or not the proposal can win approval from Congress as Republicans criticize it for including to the Federal authorities’s debt burden. A September report by the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the federal price range deficit reached $3.3 trillion in fiscal 2020, almost triple the earlier yr’s determine. The report predicted that U.S. authorities debt might exceed the scale of gross home product in 2021, solely the second time since 1946.

Restoring multilateralism

Biden promised to embrace multilateralism once more, reversing Trump’s “America First” posture that shattered worldwide cooperation over the previous 4 years.

One of the frontiers anticipated for the brand new administration is to revive U.S management in responding to local weather change. Biden recommitted the United States to the 2016 Paris Agreement on local weather, which Trump deserted. He plans to host world leaders for a local weather summit in April, an indication of the brand new president’s dedication not simply to rejoin the accord but in addition to strengthen it, based on Bloomberg.

Biden’s dedication to combating local weather change additionally sparked hopes that the U.S. and China would work out a solution to work collectively. Relations of the world’s two largest economies dropped to a brand new low beneath the Trump administration as confrontations ratcheted up in commerce, know-how and different arenas.

Trump left the White House Jan. 20

Biden additionally signaled an intention to reset relationships between the U.S. and its conventional allies that had been broken by Trump, rejoin the Iran nuclear deal and recalibrate U.S. technique within the Middle East.

Several Obama veterans will anchor Biden’s overseas coverage crew, signaling a return to a extra conventional strategy after 4 years of uncertainty and unpredictability. They embrace Secretary of State-designate Antony Blinken, who served as deputy secretary of state throughout the Obama administration; Jake Sullivan, former nationwide safety adviser to Vice President Biden; and John Kerry, Obama’s secretary of state.

Blinken vowed throughout a affirmation listening to final week to revive American management on the world stage. He additionally backed a tricky posture towards China, though he stated he disagreed with Trump’s strategy.

“We have to start by approaching China from a position of strength, not weakness,” he stated, “a place of energy once we are working with, not denigrating, our allies.”

Several Chinese consultants stated Biden’s picks point out that the brand new administration will proceed to be powerful on China with a give attention to “intense competition.”

Biden’s China coverage would fall someplace between Obama’s engagement strategy and Trump’s decoupling technique, with a give attention to competitors with Beijing, whereas enhancing cooperation with America’s regional allies in containing China, stated Gao Ruidong, chief economist at Everbright Securities.

The creation of the brand new publish of Coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs displays Biden’s intention to deepen the U.S. engagement in Asia. Kurt Campbell, a key architect of Obama’s U.S. pivot to Asia technique, was appointed to take the place.

“America is back,” Biden stated in November when launched his overseas coverage crew. “Ready to lead the world, not retreat from it.”

Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com).

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