WILMINGTON, Delaware: President-elect Joe Biden on Monday (Nov 16) will focus on plans for reviving a pandemic-battered US economy as he prepares for his new administration, while President Donald Trump vowed to press ahead with long-shot court challenges to the election results.
With the number of coronavirus cases surging across the country, Biden will receive a briefing and give a speech in his home state of Delaware on rebuilding an economy that has suffered millions of job losses as the pandemic has killed more than 245,000 Americans and closed many businesses.
Biden's scientific advisers will meet this week with pharmaceutical companies developing vaccines to battle COVID-19, a top aide to the president-elect said, in preparation for the logistical challenges of widespread vaccination.
Trump sent mixed messages on Sunday, briefly appearing to acknowledge defeat in a morning tweet, only to backtrack, saying he concedes "nothing" and repeating his unfounded accusations of voter fraud.
He later promised on Twitter to file "big cases showing the unconstitutionality of the 2020 Election", even though he has made no headway with his legal challenges in multiple states so far.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Trump delivers update on so-called Operation Warp Speed coronavirus treatment program in televised address from the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington
Legal experts have said the Trump litigation stands little chance of altering the election's outcome, and election officials of both parties have said there is no evidence of major irregularities.
In another blow to Trump's legal strategy, his campaign on Sunday dropped a major part of a lawsuit it brought seeking to halt Pennsylvania from certifying its results, narrowing the case to an issue affecting a small number of ballots. Biden won the state by more than 60,000 votes.
More than a week after Biden was declared the victor by major news organisations based on state-by-state vote counts, the General Services Administration has still not recognised him as president-elect, preventing his team from gaining access to government office space and funding normally provided to an incoming administration to ensure a smooth transition.
Biden's top advisers warned that Trump's refusal to begin a transition could jeopardise the battle against the virus and inhibit vaccine distribution planning.
The number of US coronavirus cases passed 11 million on Sunday, a million more new cases than a week ago and the fastest increase since the pandemic began. The number of COVID-19 patients in US hospitals also has reached an all-time high.
'FUTURE'S IN OUR HANDS'
Michigan and Washington state on Sunday imposed sweeping new restrictions on gatherings, including halting indoor restaurant service, to slow the spread of the virus.
"We are in a very dangerous period," Dr Michael Osterholm, a member of Biden's COVID-19 Advisory Board and director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, told NBC's Meet The Press.
Unless action is taken now, "we're going to see these numbers grow substantially", Osterholm warned. "Our future's in our hands."
Biden has promised to make the health crisis a top priority as president. Ron Klain, who will be White House chief of staff when Biden takes office on Jan 20, said Biden's scientific advisers would meet with Pfizer and other drugmakers this week.
Pfizer said last week its vaccine candidate proved more than 90 per cent effective in initial trials, giving hope that widespread vaccination in the coming months could help get the pandemic under control. Other companies also are in advanced stages of developing promising vaccines.
Biden beat Trump in the Nov 3 election by the same 306-232 margin in the state-by-state Electoral College that Trump proclaimed a "landslide" when he won in 2016. The Democratic former vice president also won the national popular vote by at least 5.5 million votes, or 3.6 percentage points, with ballots still being counted.
A laborious hand recount is under way in Georgia, where Biden has been projected the winner and holds a lead of more than 14,000 votes. Patrick Moore, a Biden campaign legal adviser, said the recount had so far shifted vote totals "almost imperceptibly", and in Biden's favour, and there had been no evidence of widespread irregularities.
Control of the US Senate will be decided by two January runoff elections in Georgia, which will be important for the fate of Biden's ambitious legislative agenda. Klain said Biden may campaign in Georgia ahead of the runoffs.
TAIPEI: Trade-dependent Taiwan has made "relatively" good progress towards joining the revamped version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but it is awaiting clearer rules on membership, the island's chief trade negotiator said on Monday (Nov 16).
While a member of the World Trade Organization, many countries are wary of signing trade deals with Taiwan fearing objections from China, which claims the democratic island as its own territory, and Taiwan has sought greater access to multilateral deals.
Fifteen Asia-Pacific economies formed the world's largest free trade bloc on Sunday, the China-backed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which does not include the United States or Taiwan.
Tech-powerhouse Taiwan has instead been angling to join the 11-country Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), signed in 2018, again without the US.
Taiwan minister without portfolio John Deng, who leads trade talks, told reporters they had expressed willingness to join the CPTPP.
"Countries that have made relatively good progress (in applying for membership) include Britain, Taiwan and Thailand, and Taiwan's hard work has been welcomed by many," Deng said.
"They hope for us to stay in touch," he said, adding that Taiwan is waiting for the CPTPP grouping to make "clearer rules" about membership application.
The original 12-member agreement, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), was thrown into limbo in early 2017 when US President Donald Trump withdrew.
It was renamed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and links Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
Taiwan has played down the impact of RCEP on its economy, saying that 70 per cent of its exports to RCEP member countries, mostly electronic products, are already tariff free.
Taiwan hopes to eventually sign a free trade deal with the US, its main arms seller and most important international backer, and the two will hold high-level economic talks at the end of this week.
WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - US President Donald Trump on Sunday (Nov 15) briefly acknowledged losing the United States election in a morning Twitter post but then backtracked, saying he concedes “nothing”, and vowing to keep up a court fight that election-law experts say is unlikely to succeed.
President-elect Joe Biden focused on the coronavirus pandemic, a crisis that is intensifying in the weeks before he takes office, setting meetings with vaccine developers.
Mr Ron Klain, Mr Biden’s pick for White House chief of staff, urged Trump’s administration to allow a seamless transition, calling it vital for national security and combating Covid-19.
The total number of US coronavirus cases passed 11 million on Sunday, according to Reuters data, a million more new cases from just a week ago, the fastest increase since the pandemic began.
The health crisis will be a paramount concern for Mr Biden, who takes office on Jan 20. Mr Klain said Mr Biden’s scientific advisers would meet Pfizer Inc and other drugmakers starting this week to prepare for the “giant logistical project” of widespread vaccination against a virus that has killed more than 245,000 Americans and thrown millions more out of work.
Mr Biden defeated Mr Trump in the Nov 3 election by winning a series of battleground states the Republican incumbent won in 2016. The Democratic former vice-president also won the national popular vote by at least 5.5 million votes, or 3.6 percentage points, with some ballots still being counted.
Mr Trump, pursuing long-shot litigation contesting election results in several states, made conflicting statements on Twitter.
He initially appeared to admit for the first time publicly that Mr Biden won, then reversed course. He also repeated unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud.
“He won because the Election was Rigged,” he wrote, not referring to Mr Biden by name, adding a list of complaints about vote counting. About 90 minutes later, he wrote: “He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA. I concede NOTHING!”
He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA. I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION!
After a golf outing at a club he owns in Virginia, Mr Trump said on Twitter he would soon file “big cases showing the unconstitutionality of the 2020 Election”. His campaign has filed lawsuits seeking to overturn the results in multiple states, without success.
Legal experts have said the Trump litigation stands little chance of altering the election’s outcome, and election officials of both parties have said there is no evidence of major irregularities.
Speaking on NBC’s Meet The Press, Mr Klain said: “Donald Trump’s Twitter feed doesn’t make Joe Biden president or not president. The American people did that.”
The decision by the General Services Administration, headed by a Trump appointee, not to recognise Mr Biden as President-elect has prevented Mr Biden and his team from gaining access to government office space and funding normally afforded to an incoming administration to ensure a smooth transition.
Without explicitly mentioning the transition, Mr Trump praised the agency’s administrator, Ms Emily Murphy, writing on Twitter: “Great job Emily!”
Mr Klain said Ms Murphy’s agency must formally recognise Mr Biden, saying it is critical to ensure the President-elect receives intelligence briefings before taking office and to facilitate coordination with the White House coronavirus task force.
He urged Congress to pass bipartisan coronavirus relief legislation by year’s end. Talks on such legislation have stalled.
‘Vaccine challenge’
Mr Klain previously said a smooth transition was necessary to ensure the government was prepared to roll out a Covid-19 vaccine early next year.
Pfizer said last week its vaccine candidate proved more than 90 per cent effective in initial trials, giving hope that widespread vaccination in the coming months could help get the pandemic under control.
Other companies also are in advanced stages of developing promising vaccines.
“It’s great to have a vaccine, but vaccines don’t save lives. Vaccinations save lives,” Mr Klain said. “And that means you’ve got to get that vaccine into people’s arms all over this country.”
The mechanics of manufacturing and distribution lie with the US Department of Health and Human Services, he added, making it important for Mr Biden’s team to be able to coordinate with current HHS officials.
“It would be better if we could start working with them,” he said of coordination between the existing task force and Mr Biden’s team.
Dr Fauci welcomed Mr Klain’s selection, saying he had been “terrific” under former president Barack Obama in managing the US response to a 2014 Ebola outbreak.
Mr Biden’s campaign said it had raised US$10.5 million (S$14.1 million) of its target of US$30 million for a “Biden Fight Fund” aimed at election defence efforts, according to a fund-raising plea sent on Sunday.
A laborious hand recount is under way in Georgia, where Mr Biden has been projected the winner and holds a lead of more than 14,000 votes.
Mr Patrick Moore, a Biden campaign legal adviser, said the recount had so far shifted vote totals “almost imperceptibly”, and in Mr Biden’s favor, and there had been no evidence of widespread irregularities.
Control of the US Senate will be decided by two January run-off elections in Georgia, which will be important for the fate of Mr Biden’s ambitious legislative agenda. Mr Klain said Mr Biden may campaign in Georgia ahead of the run-offs.
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump's campaign on Sunday (Nov 16) dropped a major part of a lawsuit it brought seeking to halt Pennsylvania from certifying its results in the presidential election, narrowing the case to a small number of ballots.
In an amended complaint filed in federal court, the Trump campaign dropped a claim that election officials unlawfully blocked observers from watching the counting of mail-in ballots in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
The pared-down lawsuit now focuses on a claim that Democratic-leaning counties unlawfully allowed voters to fix errors in their mail-in ballots in violation of state law. Officials have said the dispute affects a small number of ballots in the state, where Democrat Joe Biden is projected to win by more than 60,000 votes.
Pennsylvania officials have asked a judge to toss Trump's lawsuit, saying the election observers were allowed to assess the processing of mail-in ballots and that all of the state's counties were permitted to inform residents if their mailed-in ballots were deficient, even if it was not mandatory for them to do so.
In Pennsylvania's populous Montgomery County, fewer than 100 voters fixed ballots with technical errors, a county official testified at a court hearing on Nov 4.
The Trump campaign continues to seek a court order blocking the Pennsylvania secretary of state from ratifying the result.
Biden clinched the election after news media and Edison Research called him as the victor in Pennsylvania, putting him over the 270 electoral votes needed to win. Edison Research said on Friday that Biden had won 306 Electoral College votes to Trump's 232.
Trump on Sunday briefly appeared to acknowledge that Biden's victory, but then recanted and claimed he would soon file fresh challenges. His campaign has filed a string of long-shot lawsuits in several battleground states.
On Twitter on Sunday, Trump said many cases being filed were not from his campaign.
"Our big cases showing the unconstitutionality of the 2020 Election, & the outrage of things that were done to change the outcome, will soon be filed!," he tweeted.
Legal experts say the lawsuits have little chance of changing the outcome of the election. A senior Biden legal adviser has dismissed the litigation as "theatrics, not really lawsuits".
Pennsylvania is due to certify the election results on Nov 23.
SINGAPORE: At the South Carolina funeral of the racial segregationist and Republican senator Strom Thurmond in 2003, there was one name in the guest list that no one expected: Joseph R Biden Jr.
Mr Biden, then the Democratic senator from the blue state of Delaware, had been handpicked by a dying Mr Thurmond to deliver an eulogy as the only Democrat in the grieving room.
“I think this is his last laugh,” said Mr Biden at the church wake. “For what else would explain a Northeast liberal’s presence here as the only outsider speaking today?”
Despite seemingly irreconcilable political views, the now president-elect of the United States and Thurmond were long-time friends whose Senate offices in Washington were once side by side.
Thurmond was an icon of Southern white supremacy who advocated for discriminatory laws against African-Americans, while Mr Biden entered politics at age 29 because of the civil rights movement and ultimately served alongside America’s first black president as his vice president.
Strom Thurmond (left) and a young Joe Biden in Washington on Oct 6, 1987. (File photo: Reuters/CNP)
It was Thurmond who stood by his side when Mr Biden’s first presidential bid flopped spectacularly in 1987, after a New York Times report exposed him for plagiarising a speech by a British politician without attribution.
Facing a barrage of criticism, Mr Biden had also wanted to drop out of an important Senate committee hearing, but was stopped by Thurmond.
As Mr Biden recounted in his eulogy: “Strom Thurmond was the first man on his feet - (he) did not seek a single explanation for what I had been accused of. And clearly, when partisanship was a winning option, he chose friendship.”
In today’s deeply divided America, where Democrats and Republicans cannot see eye-to-eye and ideologues on both sides have become mainstream, such a display of nonpartisanship appears to be inconceivable in the current zeitgeist.
In the race for the White House, Mr Biden had faced criticism from other progressive Democratic presidential contenders, and will likely have to continue navigating the power struggle between centrists and the left-wing forces in his party in his term ahead.
He may also have to contend with a Republican-led Senate, depending on how the two Jan 5 run-off elections for Georgia go. The conservative party already controls half the Senate so far.
And while many may regard the US presidential and congressional elections as a referendum on incumbent President Donald Trump or about which politician has the right to govern, political watchers say the polls are really a litmus test for what America is.
At the time of writing (Nov 14), Mr Biden had received 50.8 per cent of the popular vote and secured 306 electors - more than the 270 he needed to clinch the presidency - compared with Mr Trump’s 47.4 per cent and 232 electors respectively. All electors have been accounted for, but recounts could be triggered in some states, such as Georgia, due to their narrow margins.
Renowned US pollster John Zogby said in his analysis with global journalists earlier this month: “Because this race is so close, no matter who wins, we can draw the conclusion that Donald Trump was not repudiated by the public.”
“We can also draw the conclusion that Joe Biden ... did not get a ringing endorsement from the voting public,” he added.
Mr Trump has refused to concede the election, spending the past week tweeting claims of mass voter fraud without substantiating his allegations with evidence.
Despite this, on Nov 7, Mr Biden, along with his running mate Kamala Harris, declared victory in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, even as he attempted to reach out across America’s ideological divide with a message of unity.
He said: “It's time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again. And to make progress we have to stop treating our opponents as enemies. They are not our enemies. They are Americans.”
From left: Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris; Harris; President-elect Joe Biden; and his wife Jill Biden on stage together in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday, Nov 7, 2020. (Photo: AP/Andrew Harnik, Pool)
Although the sound and fury of the US polls has not ceased, all eyes are now on the president-elect, who turns 78 later this month, as he and his transition team translate election pledges into actual policies.
Given the state of America that he will inherit, a long list of tasks will await Mr Biden when he assumes office on Jan 20.
An urgent response to the COVID-19 crisis and the deepening economic recession is needed, other domestic policies in healthcare, education and immigration require his attention, as do the complex web of foreign affairs that call for more US engagement in a post-Trump world.
But one of his biggest challenges will be to bridge the yawning partisan divide in America, which the elections have laid bare.
Conservatives believe in economic individualism, limited taxes and government, and self-sufficiency, while liberals strive for civil liberty, equality, and social justice. Recent studies have shown both sides believe their views are mutually exclusive of the other.
Dr Collin Koh, a research fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), said: “The immediate priorities for the Biden administration will likely be domestic to try to unify a fractured, deeply polarised country.”
Questions abound on Mr Biden’s plans for America: Will he take a progressive view of the world that completely strips away his immediate predecessor’s policies?
Or will he straddle the line between conservatives and liberals, and pursue a “fiscally conservative, socially liberal” path similar to Mr Barack Obama’s two terms as president?
If anything, Thurmond’s funeral may offer some clues about Mr Biden himself.
Former United States president Barack Obama campaigns with Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in Flint, Michigan, on Oct 31, 2020. (Photo: AFP/Jim Watson)
As Washington Post political columnist David von Drehle who had covered the funeral said, Mr Biden was the “win-win” kind of guy, whose view of politics was “a two-way street, a marketplace of needs and favours in which participants can all benefit from the free exchange of chits”.
As a person who has devoted his political career to building relationships in the Senate regardless of the other person’s political stripes, a Biden-led administration could be more about pragmatism than ideologies, some commentators said.
As Mr Biden, speaking over his dead friend’s casket in that summer of 2003, had said: “Our differences were profound.
“But I came to understand that, as (the American poet) Archibald MacLeish wrote: ‘It is not in the world of ideas that life is lived: Life is lived for better or worse in life.’”
DEALING WITH COVID-19
Top of the agenda for the new administration is tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is an immediate priority for Mr Biden that will happen before day one of his presidency, said Mr Steven Okun, a Singapore-based senior adviser for McLarty Associates who once served in the Bill Clinton administration.
Mr Frank Lavin, former US ambassador to Singapore from 2001 to 2005, added in an interview: “Get the pandemic and the economy right, and Biden will have a strong foundation to carry out his other policy goals.”
On Monday, the president-elect named 13 health experts to head a transition task force that will shape his approach to managing the coronavirus situation, including former surgeon general Vivek Murthy, who is a contender for a position in Mr Biden’s Cabinet.
United States President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris hold a virtual meeting with members of the COVID-19 advisory board in Wilmington, Delaware, on Nov 9, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)
The team has a seven-point plan on the medical front, which includes regular and free COVID-19 testing for all Americans, resolving supply problems of personal protective equipment and implementing nationwide “mask mandates” to urge the compulsory wearing of face masks, which will be enforced by the individual states.
Also noteworthy in the COVID-19 plan is the stated goal to rely on science and evidence, a departure from Mr Trump’s handling of the pandemic, in which he contradicted his scientists at several turns and downplayed the severity of the coronavirus.
Mr Trump had also previously indicated that if he were re-elected, he may sack Dr Anthony Fauci, a renowned medical expert who is also one of the leading members of the White House coronavirus task force, but whose grim assessments of the pandemic were often at odds with the administration’s.
Mr David Adelman, who was the US ambassador to Singapore from 2010 to 2013, said that in contrast, Mr Biden “will rely on science to drive the policies”.
Other experts interviewed said that the plan could put America back on track to controlling its tragic pandemic figures, as opposed to past statements made by President Trump that the country had turned the corner.
The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has predicted that by Nov 28, more than 250,000 Americans will have died from COVID-19. More than 120,000 new cases are being reported in the US each day, which is among the highest daily case counts in the world.
But when viewed politically, Mr Trump’s arguments against lockdowns and in favour of keeping the economy chugging along cannot be ignored too, said experts.
US exit polls by Zogby Strategies showed that the economy was one of the biggest concerns in the 2020 elections. Out of those who said the economy was the number one issue for them, eight in 10 voted for Mr Trump.
Mr Zogby said this is likely why Mr Trump did as well as he did. “He won (the votes) of those who identified with the economy, and also among those who felt that we should focus on rebuilding the economy more than handling and treating the coronavirus.”
Mr Biden, on the other hand, won handily among those who said the next president must deal with the coronavirus first, then the economy, said the pollster and senior fellow at the Institute of Policy Research at the Catholic University of America.
With support for pandemic response measures falling along party lines, experts noted that it is unclear how much support the incoming administration can garner for its COVID-19 plan.
And, due to the decentralised power structure of American politics, a federal Democratic government will not be able to impose much-needed mask-wearing laws if the states disagree. Most governors’ offices and state legislatures are Republican.
When it comes to a stimulus package to help American firms and some 22 million people who have lost their jobs due to COVID-19, it is likely that the Democrats will also face political gridlock over the issue.
Explained Mr Okun: “The Biden administration can put forth what his priorities are, but he needs to go through Congress. Anything that has to do with spending, with a Republican-controlled Senate, we are not likely to have tax increases for corporates or high-income earners.
“To a non-American audience, what this means is that Congress has the power of the purse.”
With the elections over and a lame-duck session underway in Washington, pressure on President Trump and Senate Republicans to provide more relief before the year ends has dissipated. Instead, a stimulus bill would likely happen only after Mr Biden takes office.
Several news outlets noted how Mr Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate majority leader who was re-elected convincingly in Kentucky, changed his tune on a relief plan after the polls.
“I don’t think the current situation demands a multi-trillion-dollar package,” said Mr McConnell last week.
What these all means is Mr Biden’s Sep 16 remarks that a COVID-19 response “isn’t about politics”, but about saving lives, may not ring true in the end.
One aspect of Mr Biden’s plan that will not require congressional or state governors’ approval is his pledge to restore the US’ relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other global health agencies, noted Mr Adelman.
President Trump had formally moved to pull the US out of the WHO in July and directed the funds meant for it elsewhere, accusing the organisation of pandering to China in its handling of COVID-19.
RSIS’ Dr Koh said while Mr Biden’s first 100 days will likely take a domestic focus, issues such as COVID-19 and others have a strong linkage to external dimensions.
“Pandemic control will necessitate cooperation with other countries … I foresee the Biden administration to undertake steps to reassure US allies and partners around the world (on its pandemic control),” said the coordinator of the US programme at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies.
MANAGING GLOBAL TRADE AND THE CHINA ISSUE
The president-elect has also resolved to boost the US economy beyond pre-pandemic levels, arguing that its growth has been hampered long before COVID-19 hit.
“It’s why Kamala Harris and I won’t just build back to the way things were. We’ll build back better,” said Mr Biden during his campaign.
But his transition team has yet to spell out the specifics of his foreign economic policy, even as the world is still in the midst of an unconcluded trade war between the US and other countries, including China.
Mr Adelman said: “Biden historically has favoured free trade and we can expect a more nuanced trade policy than Trump’s, who has turned to broad-based tariffs as the answer to most questions.”
One question mark would be whether the US would put an end to the US-China trade war, which President Trump had begun as a means to ratchet up pressure on China over what he saw as unfair trade practices at the expense of the American economy.
In an op-ed for Foreign Affairs magazine in April, Mr Biden signalled his intention to remove trade barriers that penalise Americans and resist “a dangerous global slide towards protectionism”.
“The wrong thing to do is to put our heads in the sand and say no more trade deals. Countries will trade with or without the United States. The question is, who writes the rules that govern trade? Who will make sure they protect workers, the environment, transparency and middle-class wages? The United States, not China, should be leading that effort,” said Mr Biden.
But experts said it remains to be seen whether Mr Biden would want the US to return to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), given other urgent priorities.
In one of his first acts as President, Mr Trump had withdrawn the US from the free trade pact - whose members include Canada, Australia, Japan and Singapore - because he believed that other countries would steal American jobs.
Mr Okun said the tide has shifted, as many people now recognise that the CPTPP was not just a trade agreement, but also a way for the US to address China’s ascendancy and alleged unfair trade practices.
“It’s not going to be at the top of the trade agenda. There’s too much to do on the pandemic, too much to do on building up the multilateral institutions. But there will be a different debate if the US comes back to the CPTPP, and a desire to renegotiate certain elements of the deal,” he said.
Mr Lavin noted that Mr Biden’s foreign policy positions had not been fully fleshed out during the election campaign, as the election had mostly been about domestic matters.
“(Biden) comes from the perspective of a traditionalist, who believes that the US has an obligation for global leadership and needs to work through the global institutions and with its partners,” said Mr Lavin.
Elsewhere, the president-elect has also said that he would force China to play by international rules regarding trade, market access and regional security. Although he stopped short of mentioning the World Trade Organization (WTO), many believe that Mr Biden may look to reform the institution and its rules such that the US can prosecute cases against China on trade matters.
The WTO has attracted bipartisan flak from the US over judicial overreach and a perception that China has not played by its rules since its entry in 2001.
Said Mr Adelman: “Biden’s approach in international relations will closely resemble that of President Obama, with important adjustments for changes that have occurred in the last four years.”
With China, on the other hand, it will probably be a “muscular” policy, considering the American public’s decidedly anti-China sentiment in the past few years, he added.
According to a Pew Research Center poll of Americans in July, anti-China sentiment in the US had hit a new high, with 73 per cent of adult respondents saying they had an unfavourable view of the country, up by 26 percentage points since 2018.
Consequently, the tariffs on China are likely to stay put for a while as a form of leverage, even though the trade war has hardly addressed Mr Trump’s original complaints of intellectual property theft by the Chinese or fair market access, nor has it benefited the US manufacturing sector.
Trade aside, what has fundamentally altered US-China relations is Beijing’s build-up of its military outposts on South China Sea islands, which happened during the tail end of President Obama’s second term, said Dr Michael Jonathan Green, senior vice-president for Asia and Japan chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Mr Obama, who was pursuing a US pivot to Asia and was holding dialogues with China to convince it to be a responsible stakeholder, was unwilling to put military pressure on China over the South China Sea issue.
“The US think tanks and the Obama administration were divided, and about half of them thought it was a misunderstanding … Today, I would say 95 per cent of experts all agree that China is engaging in grey zone coercion to expand its footprint and push the US out of Asia,” said Dr Green.
Then United States vice president Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Dec 4, 2013. (File photo: AP)
There is no going back to the great power relations of 2013, when Mr Obama hosted China’s President Xi Jinping at a “shirt-sleeves summit” in California, he added.
Senior Obama White House officials such as Michele Flournoy and Antony Blinken, who are now in contention for key positions in the Biden Cabinet, have also reflected on the new developments during the Trump administration and are unlikely to revert to Mr Obama’s softer touch towards China.
Ms Flournoy, who is in line to be the next defence secretary, is also known for her hawkish views on the South China Sea and Taiwan issues, and has proposed that the US should be able to “credibly threaten to sink all of China’s military vessels, submarines and merchant ships in the South China Sea within 72 hours” in order to deter China.
An assertive stance towards China is now baked into any assumption of US foreign policy, no matter who is president, said Dr Green.
The difference with Mr Trump is that instead of doing so unilaterally, the Biden administration could adopt a more consultative approach with US allies and partners in approaching China, said Dr Koh of RSIS.
Mr Biden has said that he intends to organise a global “Summit for Democracy” for its like-minded allies to push back against authoritarianism soon after taking office.
Beyond that, the US also has several multinational groupings such as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, which includes Australia, India and Japan, as well as its Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy.
“On the whole, the Biden administration’s approach to Asia may seek to draw a balance between Obama and Trump’s approaches,” said Dr Koh.
TACKLING CLIMATE CHANGE
Despite the growing geopolitical rivalry, there are also areas where the US and China will find common interests, such as climate change, the fight against COVID-19 and even their dealings with North Korea.
This will require a more conciliatory tone by the Biden administration which will compete and collaborate with China based on international rules and order rather than unilateral action, said analysts.
There is also no question that Mr Biden, with his decades of working in the Senate and experience in chairing its Foreign Relations Committee, is better equipped than his predecessor to find a balance between confronting China over economic and security differences, and working with it on their mutual interests.
Mr Biden has pledged to recommit America to the Paris Agreement on climate change, another international treaty that the US suddenly exited from under the Trump administration.
Dr Green said: “There is a strong robust bipartisanship consensus that the US will compete with China by working through multilateral institutions, by working with allies and by cooperating with China where you can.”
But analysts said the real challenge to Mr Biden’s environmental plans will come from the domestic front, especially since the Republicans have narrowed down the Democrats’ lead in the House, and may continue to hold the Senate majority.
Still, coming up with a viable modus operandi to tackle climate change is a must-do for Mr Biden, who had made it a key part of his campaign. The former vice president also faces pressures from more progressive factions within the Democratic Party to do more for the environment.
“Climate change is the existential threat to humanity,” said Mr Biden last month. “Unchecked, it is going to actually bake this planet. This is not hyperbole. It’s real. And we have a moral obligation.”
Featuring heavily among the various aspects of his US$2 trillion climate plan are its economic prospects of creating millions of jobs arising from investments in smart infrastructure, green buildings and electric vehicles, likely designed to help him secure support from rival Republicans.
But it is his clean energy goals of getting the country to reach net-zero carbon emissions, as well as to scale back the US reliance on fossil fuels, that could receive a pushback from Congress.
If the Republicans secure one of the two Senate run-offs in Georgia, Mr Biden will most likely have to carry out executive actions to meet his policy goals. And he will also have to seek compromises with Senator McConnell.
Beyond Congress, analysts point to how Mr Biden will also have to consider the political cost to himself as well. Mr Biden’s road to electoral victory had hinged on narrow victories in several Rust Belt states, including Pennsylvania, which has a growing natural gas industry.
COMING TO GRIPS WITH DOMESTIC QUAGMIRE
Several other key election pledges may also face partisan obstacles at the legislative level.
On healthcare, Mr Biden’s promise for universal healthcare with a public option - which he calls Bidencare - will require an expansion of the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans have strongly resisted.
On criminal justice reform, Mr Biden has pledged to form a police oversight commission in the first 100 days of his presidency in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests sweeping America.
But other moves related to his promise to weed out systemic racism in America also require congressional approval, such as passing the Safe, Accountable, Fair and Effective Justice Act to reform the prison system.
Because Congress controls the purse, Mr Biden’s plans that will involve sizeable tax increases and larger government spending could be hampered. To deliver his election promises, he may either need to rely on reshuffling funds from elsewhere, or on compromising his pledges.
“If you want big things out of this administration on taxes or immigration or climate change, if that's your agenda, you're going to be disappointed. Those things will be very hard with a divided government,” said Dr Green.
On the flip side, Mr Lavin argued that it is a good thing for Mr Biden that the Democrats may not be able to control the House and the Senate, as the political situation mirrors his own positioning as a moderate and conciliatory figure.
“It’s a theory, but I think having a ‘right of centre’ Congress can also be a check to the left wing in his Democratic Party, which could be a plus for Biden if he takes a centrist approach,” he added.
Nevertheless, Mr Biden has an advantage over his two predecessors, having spent a lion's share of his 48-year political career in the Senate. Mr Obama had a far shorter time in the legislative branch before heading to the Oval Office. Mr Trump had zero political experience.
United States President-elect Joe Biden celebrates on stage in Wilmington, Delaware, on Nov 7, 2020, after the news media announced that he had won the 2020 US presidential election. (Photo: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
Both did not know what they were doing in trying to get legislation passed, said Dr Green, adding that when President Obama got things done in Congress, it was actually thanks to Vice-President Biden working behind the scenes.
Mr Biden’s extensive knowledge in the workings of Congress means he is likely to prefer the pragmatic approach of reaching compromises and building relationships over time, rather than fighting to the bitter end due to ideological differences, said analysts.
In his 2007 memoir Promises to Keep, Mr Biden wrote: “Any day of the week you can read or hear about the lamentable state of our nation’s politics, about our bitter and partisan party divisions, about the regrettable coarseness of the discourse.
“I don’t deny it, but from inside the arena (of the Senate), none of it feels irreversible or fatal.”
Even then, Mr Biden may now be thinking about the next election in 2024, and what the electorate would think if he cannot achieve all that he promised.
Mr Biden will be the oldest US president to be inaugurated in January next year, when he will be 78. He has left open the possibility of seeking a second term in 2024, when he will be 82, and will leave office aged 86 if re-elected.
Mr Trump, in the meantime, is making plans for a return, even though he has yet to publicly admit defeat.
Days after major media outlets called the election for Mr Biden last week, the president formed a new fundraising vehicle known as a leadership political action committee, a move that could keep him highly visible in the Republican Party.
Given the sway he holds over millions of Republican voters, it could also mean Mr Trump, now 74, will stick around for the next election cycle when the party searches for its nominee.
US-based news website Axios reported on Monday that he had already told advisers he was thinking about another presidential bid in 2024.
Mr Biden may have emerged a clear victor in one of the most bruising US presidential elections ever, but it could take some doing to shake off the ghost of Trumpism as he embarks on his presidency and the monumental tasks at hand.
WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - US President Donald Trump on Sunday (Nov 15) briefly acknowledged losing the US election in a morning Twitter post but then backtracked, saying he concedes “nothing,” and vowing to keep up a court fight that election-law experts say is unlikely to succeed.
President-elect Joe Biden focused on the coronavirus pandemic, a crisis that is intensifying in the weeks before he takes office, setting meetings with vaccine developers.
Ron Klain, Biden’s pick for White House chief of staff, urged Trump’s administration to allow a seamless transition, calling it vital for national security and combating Covid-19.
The total number of US coronavirus cases passed 11 million on Sunday, according to Reuters data, a million more new cases from just a week ago, the fastest increase since the pandemic began.
The health crisis will be a paramount concern for Biden, who takes office on Jan 20. Klain said Biden’s scientific advisers would meet with Pfizer Inc and other drugmakers starting this week to prepare for the “giant logistical project” of widespread vaccination against a virus that has killed more than 245,000 Americans and thrown millions more out of work.
Biden defeated Trump in the Nov 3 election by winning a series of battleground states the Republican incumbent had won in 2016. The Democratic former vice president also won the national popular vote by at least 5.5 million votes, or 3.6 percentage points, with some ballots still being counted.
Trump, pursuing long-shot litigation contesting election results in several states, made conflicting statements on Twitter.
He initially appeared to admit for the first time publicly that Biden won, then reversed course. Trump also repeated unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud.
“He won because the Election was Rigged,” Trump wrote, not referring to Biden by name, adding a list of complaints about vote counting. About 90 minutes later, Trump wrote: “He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA. I concede NOTHING!”
He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA. I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION!
After a golf outing at a club he owns in Virginia, Trump said on Twitter he would soon file “big cases showing the unconstitutionality of the 2020 Election.” Trump’s campaign has filed lawsuits seeking to overturn the results in multiple states, without success.
Legal experts have said the Trump litigation stands little chance of altering the election’s outcome, and election officials of both parties have said there is no evidence of major irregularities.
Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, Klain said: “Donald Trump’s Twitter feed doesn’t make Joe Biden president or not president. The American people did that.”
The decision by the General Services Administration, headed by a Trump appointee, not to recognise Biden as President-elect has prevented Biden and his team from gaining access to government office space and funding normally afforded to an incoming administration to ensure a smooth transition.
Without explicitly mentioning the transition, Trump praised the agency’s administrator, Emily Murphy, writing on Twitter: “Great job Emily!” Klain said Murphy’s agency must formally recognise Biden, saying it is critical to ensure the President-elect receives intelligence briefings before taking office and to facilitate coordination with the White House coronavirus task force.
Klain urged Congress to pass bipartisan coronavirus relief legislation by year’s end. Talks on such legislation have stalled.
‘Vaccine challenge’
Klain previously said a smooth transition was necessary to ensure the government was prepared to roll out a Covid-19 vaccine early next year.
Pfizer said last week its vaccine candidate proved more than 90 per cent effective in initial trials, giving hope that widespread vaccination in the coming months could help get the pandemic under control.
Other companies also are in advanced stages of developing promising vaccines.
“It’s great to have a vaccine, but vaccines don’t save lives. Vaccinations save lives,” Klain said. “And that means you’ve got to get that vaccine into people’s arms all over this country.”
The mechanics of manufacturing and distribution lie with the US Department of Health and Human Services, Klain added, making it important for Biden’s team to be able to coordinate with current HHS officials.
“It would be better if we could start working with them,” Fauci said of coordination between the existing task force and Biden’s team.
Fauci welcomed Klain’s selection, saying he had been “terrific” under former President Barack Obama in managing the US response to a 2014 Ebola outbreak.
Biden’s campaign said it had raised US$10.5 million (S$14.1 million) of its target of US$30 million for a “Biden Fight Fund” aimed at election defence efforts, according to a fundraising plea sent on Sunday.
A laborious hand recount is under way in Georgia, where Biden has been projected the winner and holds a lead of more than 14,000 votes.
Patrick Moore, a Biden campaign legal adviser, said the recount had so far shifted vote totals “almost imperceptibly,” and in Biden’s favor, and there had been no evidence of widespread irregularities.
Control of the US Senate will be decided by two January runoff elections in Georgia, which will be important for the fate of Biden’s ambitious legislative agenda. Klain said Biden may campaign in Georgia ahead of the runoffs.
SINGAPORE - A number of Covid-19 vaccine candidates are undergoing late-stage trials and if successful, may be used to inoculate millions from as early as next month. Singapore has been in talks with pharmaceutical companies working on some of them, to secure doses for people here, said Health Minister Gan Kim Yong.
They include Pfizer, the United States company which announced that the vaccine it is developing with German company BioNTech has proven 90 per cent effective in clinical trials.
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