However, analysts also predict that Biden will narrow the scope of restrictions on China in the next 100 days and beyond, to avoid a break with Beijing.

US President Joe Biden (left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Biden’s presidency will pass the 100-day mark on April 30, a symbolic milestone by which administrations are often judged both on how well they fulfill campaign promises and what it signals about the future.

Over the past three months, the Biden administration has punished Chinese officials for allegedly violating human rights in Xinjiang and eroding freedoms in Hong Kong.

According to David Dollar, former special envoy of the US Treasury Department, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s plan with China has three main paths, including confrontation, competition and cooperation.

`There is little evidence of cooperation, the one exception being Xi Jinping’s participation in a virtual climate summit hosted by Biden,` Dollar wrote in a Brookings Institution analysis published this week.

Speaking to reporters earlier this week to discuss Biden’s national security priorities, a senior administration official said the administration would `not shy away from difficult topics and address them directly with

But despite Biden’s willingness to maintain or even escalate tensions with Beijing in some areas, some Republicans still describe him as too friendly with Beijing.

`He’s a foreign policy disaster,` said South Carolina Republican senator Lindsey Graham.

Hawkish Republican officials including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Rick Scott have sought to portray some of the administration’s moves as a weak approach to Beijing, including Washington

Scott accused Biden of `weak defense spending` and said he sought to `appease China`.

This deeply divided political environment will lead to further discord between hard-line Republican lawmakers like Scott, who want to confront Beijing, and moderate Republicans and Democrats who are

This group is working to promote the Strategic Competitiveness bill of 2021, introduced by Senate Foreign Relations Committee leaders Bob Menendez and Jim Risch to address economic competition with China, as well as issues

Citing the Biden administration’s commitment to increased engagement with Taiwan, the first US-China bilateral meeting in Alaska and the decision to keep tariffs in place during the trade war, Dollar sees Biden’s approach

A senior Biden administration official on April 27 wanted Biden to focus more on multilateralism to show a difference from the Trump administration.

This official referred to the investment agreement that the European Union and China agreed to in the final stages of the Trump administration, `after four years of them letting our alliances fray.`

EU leaders appear keen to work closer with Washington under Biden, with the bloc’s leaders recently warning members that the EU and Beijing have `fundamental differences` on issues including

In an internal letter obtained by Politico, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said those differences `should not be glossed over` and argued that the bloc should `

Sourabh Gupta, an expert at the Washington-based Institute for China-US Studies, said that while Biden seeks to expand cooperation with allies, his decision to keep many of the Trump administration’s policies intact is wise.

Still, the time is ripe for Biden to start eliminating punitive tariffs, which `hurt both sides,` Gupta said.

The Trump administration `asked China to play on a level playing field and now the US is skewing that playing field by trying to cut off China’s access to certain core technologies, which is why

The US Department of Commerce in December 2020 announced a list of dozens of Chinese companies, including many in the aviation sector, that will be blocked from purchasing US technology.

The Biden administration is conducting several assessments of direct and indirect trade with China, the results of which will guide US leadership’s strategy on trade and technology with the country.

Weifeng Zhong, a fellow at the Mercatus Center, said the administration should lift tariffs and some broad restrictions on China, while still imposing restrictions on the advanced semiconductor business.

Biden is `trying to find the balance between confrontation and cooperation, so I think the US is at a critical moment in really finding the right point in between the two extremes,` Zhong said.

The Biden administration is considering policy with China in the context of America’s deep division on many issues.

However, public consensus on China is much more pronounced, with about 89% of US adults viewing China as a competitor or enemy, according to a survey by the Research Center.

`We can’t go back to what we’ve been doing for the past 20 years and say let’s not care about other issues and just focus on making money,` Zhong said.