According to Washington’s most practiced specialists, the South China Sea is now the frontline of the twenty-first century’s clash between democracy and authoritarianism. With America’s diplomatic relations to China plummeting, many commentators are already discussing a new Cold War.

It’s hard to tell who in China has the ear of the White House, but the domestic experts Biden has chosen are revealing as to the administration’s agenda, suggesting a continuity with the Obama administration’s “pivot to Asia” and attempted containment of China.

Several of Biden’s China advisors also have a direct financial interest in expanding US foreign investment opportunities in China, signaling continuity with an older American tradition: designing foreign policy around a mandate to expand American investment opportunities and facilitate the mobility of capital.