they prefer the pre-Trump paradigm where the primary tool is isolation by the liberal order rather than confrontation by the US in power rivalry. They won't grudgingly go along with norms. There is bipartisan consensus on the threat of China now, Biden and his advisors will adapt, but it's an area that should probably look more like a competently implemented version of Trump rather than anything under Obama.

--

Biden will try to use the “global liberal order” against China. Trump always favoured a direct clash, one taking place in a fundamentally chaotic or disordered world. For Biden, world politics still follows an organized set of values and rules. China will be asked to at least pay formal tribute to that order or then be sanctioned in accordance with the rules.

This approach has two obvious disadvantages:

• It is transformational rather than transactional. Its rationale is to bring about changes in either Chinese behaviour or even the Chinese regime itself. Such changes may be impossible to obtain and their pursuit utopian. Trump was more interested in bringing about changes in the relative balance of power.
• Even though the “global liberal order” is very much a tool used to project American power, it does nonetheless impose some constraints on the United States. For example: the outright ban on certain Chinese companies might be regarded as incompatible with the upholding of certain rules and principles. Or forms of economic coercion against allies might be excluded, but without them the United States might not be able to force those allies to reduce economic links with China. Trump did not prima facie exclude any method or tactic, because the contest did not take place under a normative order.