In his first press conference as president last month, President Biden said that his administration’s approach to China was not confrontation but “steep competition.” And for all the challenges the U.S. faces in dealing with a country that is now an economic superpower, and increasingly confident — so much so that at a meeting in Alaska a few weeks ago, Yang Jiechi could use America’s own racial tensions to criticize an American delegation led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken �