ANALYSIS – Joe Biden is weak on China. Maybe it's partly due to his son Hunter's business entanglements with the Chinese communist regime, maybe it's just part of Joe's nature.
Maybe it's Democrat ideology. Maybe it's all of the above.
But Biden, and his entire national security team, reeks of weakness and appeasement. And Secretary of State Antony Blinken's trip to Beijing is just the latest example.
I have repeatedly referred to Biden's attempts to ‘repair relations' with Beijing, especially this obsequious trip by Blinken, as being ‘weak' and ‘desperate.' And this perception is extremely dangerous considering China's growing aggressiveness, especially toward Taiwan.
Even White House national security spokesman John Kirby warned earlier this month that China has been getting more aggressive in the South China Sea around Taiwan, greatly increasing the risk of war.
And now retired Army Lieutenant General and former national security adviser H. R. McMaster is saying pretty much the same thing about Blinken's trip. Even if he pulled his punches.
On Sunday on CBS's “Face the Nation,” McMaster said Blinken's trip to China “may portray a bit of weakness” which is an understatement.
But he also implied Team Biden is courting “disaster” by making repeated concessions to China.
McMaster – who served in the Trump administration – added that the appearance of the United States begging to send its top diplomat to Beijing, even after all the Chinese belligerence, spying, military provocations, and even a high-altitude spy balloon traversing the entire United States for eleven days, shows the world that China is in charge.
McMaster said China is especially trying to make a point about its global standing after two recent near-misses between the two militaries in the Taiwan Strait and over the South China Sea; incidents that China deliberately provoked.
“They're not unprecedented, but it's unusual in terms of the quick succession of multiple incidents,” he said.
“I think China's sending a message, ‘Hey, we're in charge now. You're finished' to the West and to the United States.”
“And, and I think it's indicative of what they hope to achieve … which is to create kind of an exclusionary area of primacy across the Indo-Pacific region. They've laid claim to the ocean in the South China Sea, for example,” McMaster said.
“So, I think this really calls for us to have a strong response, I think … with Secretary Blinken's visit there, it may portray a bit of weakness,” he said.
McMaster added that he believes China is using Blinken's trip to “create a perception that we're going there to pay homage to the Chinese Communist Party because they want to use that kind of perception of China's strength relative to the United States to bludgeon countries in the region and say, ‘Hey, time to bandwagon with us. This is our era,' what they call the ‘new era of international relations.'”
McMaster also explained that despite those like Team Biden who long sought engagement with China as a way to tame the dragon, “the Chinese Communist Party leadership had aspirations that went far beyond anything in reaction to what we do. And China really does want to establish itself as it sees it at the center.”
That's his diplo-speak way to say China wants to dominate the world and isn't responding to our actions. It has its own grand plan for world domination.
Blinken's trip to Beijing began on Sunday with meetings with Chinese officials that the State Department called “candid, substantive, and constructive.” This likely means the Chinese chewed out and cajoled Blinken and laid down some markers.
McMaster isn't arguing against diplomacy with the world's second most powerful country, but there is a difference between diplomacy and appearing weak, which will only push those countries still undecided on which side to take, to tilt toward China.
“It's important to have diplomacy with China. But let's also have diplomacy with countries that might be sitting on the fence to say, Hey, your choice, really, at this moment is not between Washington and Beijing. It's between sovereignty and servitude,” McMaster said on Sunday.
But to do that the United States has to project strength and resolve. And that's definitely not what it is doing now.
He also said good relations shouldn't be an end in itself. Making concession after concession to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will only bring “disaster.”
And while McMaster may be too diplomatic to say it more directly, Biden seems to be afraid of China and is trying desperately to appease them.
At least that's the appearance. And in global geopolitics, perceptions are often as important as reality.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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