China will attempt to manipulate Joe Biden into a more acquiescent foreign policy toward Beijing.

The first plank of Xi Jinping’s strategy will be to offer Biden an immediate improvement in relations without cost to Washington. Xi’s intent will be to play to the Biden administration’s multilateral instincts, reinforcing its hopes that China can be handled without constant tensions. To that end, I would expect China to increase U.S. imports very early in the Biden administration, play up its fallacious climate change commitments, and offer new dialogue on problems such as intellectual property rights and tensions in the South China Sea.