Joe Biden says that America’s greatest long-term challenge overseas comes from China. Confronting Beijing is the work of generations, he argues. It’s the battle that your grandchildren will study in college: Will democracy or autocracy prevail across the globe?

The fight for economic superiority in Asia is a critical component of this contest. But 13 months into the Biden presidency, the administration’s plan for competing in the region consists of a single 51-word paragraph. In an October statement, Biden announced he would create what he calls an “Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.” When asked now about Biden’s plans to take on China’s economy, administration officials still refer to the October description of the framework. They say they are only at the start of a months-long process to develop an Asian economic plan — but as yet, that paragraph is the closest thing to a public strategy that the White House has announced.

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Meanwhile, labor unions are suspicious of a digital trade agreement, fearing that enhanced communications could make it easier to automate jobs and shift them overseas. “We know where the trouble spots are for us,” says Dan Mauer, government affairs director for the Communications Workers of America.

And as the TPP panic attack on Capitol Hill in December shows, there is deep suspicion among free-trade critics that the administration will use the framework to try to rejoin the TPP or start negotiations on a new broad trade deal. Activists say they are ready for a battle.

“There are some never-learn ideologues trying to use this process to revive the corporate-rigged trade pact model in general and TPP in specific,” says Lori Wallach, a veteran anti-free trade campaigner who works closely with Democratic lawmakers.