What killed US-China engagement?

WHEN Chinese President Xi Jinping met US President Joe Biden last fall, some interpreted it as a return to engagement. In fact, it heralded only a minor detente, not a major change in policy.

The United States’ engagement with the People’s Republic of China began with Richard Nixon in 1972 and was expanded by Bill Clinton. Since then, critics have described US policy as naive, owing to its failure to understand the Communist Party of China’s long-term objectives.

Underpinning the policy was the prediction, from modernisation theory, that economic growth would propel China down the same liberalising path as other Confucian societies such as South Korea and Taiwan. Xi, however, has made China more closed and autocratic.