Thread by @BaldingsWorld

There's famous Biblical parable where a master goes away for sometime and leaves talents to his servants. The last servant returns upon the masters arrival and says here is the talent you gave me. The master asks what did you do with it while I was away. The servant responds 1/n

I buried it. This seems like a perfect analogy for the first year of the Biden administration foreign policy focusing on China and generally the world at large. The closest thing there would be to a significant new movement is AUKUS but that was instigated by Australia 2/n

Everything else is just nibbling at the edges backwards or forwards of everything Trump. Biden policy on China to date is just Trump. That's it. Period. Couple minor steps forward and a couple minor steps back but basically nothing. What is even more astounding 3/n

Is not only has there not been any real movement in any direction, they have not even openly discussed or given anything but the vaguest of answers about what direction they want to be going on any of it. USTR talk yesterday. Was it good or bad on China? Totally depends on 4/n

on how you choose to read it. Talked for an hour or two and really said very little concrete of substance that advanced what we already knew. China isn't changing. Not really an insight. Tariffs, well we intend to keep them but change some of them but we don't really know yet 5/n

We are nearly one year into the Biden administration, one year since election day, and what is Biden China and more broadly foreign policy? Nobody could really give a concrete answer to that. Spin the plates and bury the talents and wait. Why does this matter? Simple: 6/n

You think China is standing still? Nope. You think Iran is standing still? Nope. I mean hell the geriatric Japanese are doing at least as much as we are. China is moving to decouple and we aren't even sure what we want to do much less how to achieve it. What compounds this 7/n

Is Team Biden are the self proclaimed smartest guys in the rooms. The experts. They spent the last four years in think tanks espousing their brilliance. What happens the first year they arrive? Nothing. Like nothing. They got basically nothing to show for year 1. Zilch. 8/n

The best that can really be said is they haven't really rolled much back. As I said a little back and a little forward but most everything is edge nibbling. Nothing. We aint' got the time for these guys to spin plates and play Risk for 4 years. Things are coming much faster.