Meeting halfway in Anchorage, Alaska, 58-year-old Secretary of State Tony Blinken and 44-year-old Jake Sullivan get their first chance to alienate China as they’ve already done with 68-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin. Western leaders have a hard time with the fact that Putin created the world’s first safe-and-effective Covid-19 vaccine, Sputnik V. U.S. and European Union officials decided it was time to slam Putin, slapping the Russian Federation with new economic and travel sanctions. If that weren’t bad enough, Biden told ABC’s George Stephaopoulos March 16 the Putin was a “soulless killer,” prompting the Kremlin to recall their Washington Amb. Anatoly Antonov. Now Blinken and Sullivan get their chance to drive U.S.-Sino relations in the same place as Russia. Meeting China’s top diplomat Yan Jiechi and State Councilor Wang Yi, Blinken and Sullivan started complaining.
Where’s the good old fashion U.S. diplomacy where foreign leaders exchange gifts and pleasantries calling themselves “partners?” Right off the bat Blinken and Sullivan raised the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjang Province, pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong and global commerce in Taiwan. “We do not seek conflict, but we welcome stiff competition, and we will always stand up for our principles, for our people, and for our friends,” said Blinken and Sullivan, throwing down the gauntlet on the opening syllable. “Each of these actions threaten the rules-based order that maintains global stability,” bludgeoning China’s two top diplomats. Egged on by the U.S. press, Blinken and Sullivan took exactly the wrong tact, lecturing China about its abuses of civil and human rights. China, like Russia, does not appreciate when the United State takes a holier-and-thou attitude.
President Joe Biden, 78, sent a powerful message to foreign leaders Jan. 27, telling the world that his administration will confront U.S. “systemic racism,” admitting that more needs to be done in America to deal with racism. So when Blinken and Sullivan talk about the mistreatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang Province, China’s Northwestern territory, Chinese President Xi Jinping. 67, looks at Joe’s admission but watched last summer race riots in the United States. Lecturing China how to deal with racist treatment of China’s Muslim Uighur community rings hollow to Chinese officials when the U.S. president admits the world’s “beacon of freedom” has a problem with “systemic racism.” China sees Xinjiang Province, Hong Kong and Taiwan as sovereign territory. Whether admitted to or not, the U.S. is not prepared to defend Taiwan for a mainland invasion.
It didn’t take long for Yiechi and Yi to fire back at Blinken and Sullivan, rejecting the accusations on Hong Kong, Xinjiang and especially Taiwan. Since the 1949 Maoist Revolution, Taiwan’s established itself as a U.S. protected territory, backed by successive U.S. administrations. But since President Richard Nixon and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger opened up Mainland China [1971-1972], the issue of Taiwan was always a thorny issue. China insisted when it formalized diplomatic relations with the U.S. Jan. 1, 1979, that the U.S. accepted a one-China policy, no longer recognizing the sovereignty of Taiwan. So the last 40 year the State Department has recognized only one China, while, at the same time, for all intents and purposes, doing business independently with Taiwan. Blinken and Sullivan will get nowhere trying to convince the State Department to break off business ties with Taiwan.
Yiechi hit back hard to Blinken and Sullivan feeding back Biden’s own words about “systemic racism.” Yiechi said human rights were at a low point with Black Americans “slaughtered” in U.S. streets, fitting Biden’s narrative driven by today’s Democrat Party. Once a U.S. president admits, like Biden did, that “systemic racism” exists in the U.S. and foreign government watch months of rioting in U.S. streets, it’s more difficult to lecture sovereign nations about human rights. Yiechi told Blinken and Sullivan that the U.S. should deal with its own problems and stop lecturing China about human rights abuses. How Blinken and Sullivan thought that in a first meeting with China’s top diplomats they were going to lecture China about human rights is anyone’s guess. Once Biden admitted to the world that “systemic racism” exists in the United States, he lost the moral high ground.
Biden could not have been more off-base sending Blinken and Sullivan to lecture China about human rights in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Taiwan. Biden lost the moral high ground admitting the U.S. has a problem with “systemic racism.” Watching riots, looting and arson sends a bad message to the world. When China and other U.S. adversaries see violence in U.S. streets, they conclude that the “land of the free and home of the brave,” isn’t what’s advertised. Blinken and Sullivan would make a better impression had they cut out the phony photo ops for domestic press lecturing China about civil and human rights. “The way we see the relationship with the United States is as President Xi Jinping has said, that is, we hope to see no confrontation, no conflict, mutual respect and win-win cooperation with the United States,” said Jiechi, glad that the Trump days are gone.
t and Operation Charisma.
