Continuing to drive U.S.-China relations into the lowest level since the Maoist Revolution, 58-year-old U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken must be reined in before it’s too late. Blinken and 44-year-old National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan practically brought the U.S. and China to blows at a get-to-know-you summit in Anchorage, Ak., March 19, accusing Beijing of genocide, among other human rights abuses. Blinken took his cue from 78-year-old President Joe Biden who seems poised to destroy nearly 50-years of hard-earned diplomacy with the Peoples Republic of China. Where Blinken and Sullivan thought that insulting the Chinese delegation would advance U.S. national security is anyone’s guess. One thing’s for sure, Biden, Blinken and Sullivan shouldn’t throw stones, while America’s homeless population lives in filth without sanitation while Washington’s elites eat file mignon.
Blinken didn’t have enough vitriol accusing Beijing of genocide against Muslim Uyghurs, something that cheapens the term “genocide,” when it’s more accurately mistreatment or indoctrination camps. Whatever happens to Uyghurs in Xinjiang province, China’s western-most province along the old Silk Road to Istanbul or in those days Constantinople, it’s not genocide. Now Blinken takes his next shot on China’s relationship with Taiwan, a controversial one to be sure from the days of the Maoist Revolution when Gen. Chiang Kai-Shek, led a band of former mainland Chinese capitalists to the Island of Formosa, now Taiwan. “What we’ve seen and what is of real concern to us, is increasingly aggressive actions by the government of Beijing directed at Taiwan, raising tensions in the Straits,” Blinken told NBC News, pushing Beijing to take draconic actions.
Blinken talks of U.S. obligations under the Jan. 1, 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, where the U.S. officially recognizes Beijing as one China, while, at the same time, maintaining business ties with Taiwan. Beijing insisted the U.S. recognize only Beijing diplomatically, leaving Taiwan out in the cold, insofar as formal U.S. embassy or consulate relations. Blinken thinks that under the Taiwan Relations Act the U.S. has an obligation to arm Taipei to defend itself against a potential Beijing invasion. Blinken acts like the U.S. is obligated to defend Taiwan in the event of armed conflict. All the Taiwan Relations Acts says is that the U.S. recognizes only one China, while, at the same time, maintaining business ties with Taipei. “All I can tell you is we have a serious commitment to peace and security in the Western Pacific,” Blinken said, responding to a question about defending Taiwan.
Blinken knows that under the Taiwan Relations Act, the U.S. has no obligation to defend Taipei, only supplying the non-communist government arms-and-cash to defend itself against Beijing. Blinken won’t admit that if Taiwan provokes Beijing into an invasion, the U.S. won’t send troops to defend Taipei. “We stand behind those commitments. And in that context, if would be a serious mistake for anyone to try to change that status quo by force,” Blinken said, not saying whether the U.S. would defend Taipei from a Chinese invasion. Blinken actually knows that U.S. does not have the military resources in the Pacific Rim to launch a sustained military operation against Beijing. When Blinken talks about a “serious mistake,” he’s not saying the U.S. would do anything to defend Taipei. Chinese President Xi Jinping knows that Blinken is bluffing when it comes to defending Taipei.
Biden and Blinken have many complaints about China that have now morphed into impediments for normal relations. Former President Donald Trump was tough on Beijing when it came to trade relations but never hit China below the belt when it came to human rights abuses. Slamming Beijing for a variety of human rights abuses with Muslim Uyghurs, protesters in Hong Kong and business ties with Taipei, Biden and Blinken have made normal relations impossible. Trump let China be China while hammering Beijing on trade deals, trying to correct longstanding trade imbalances. When it comes to Biden and Blinken’s approach, they’ve ripped the longstanding fabric of good will that’s allowed U.S.-China relations to flourish. Blinken hurts U.S. national security by continually harping on China’s human rights abuses, something not acceptable to the White House moral superiority.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi let Blinken and Sullivan have it with both barrels in Anchoarge. Jiechi told Blinken that no country that admits to “systemic racisim” of black Americans has a right to lecture another sovereign state about human rights. Jiechi pointed out that Biden admitted publicly that the U.S. was a “systemically racist” country, mistreating African Americans for generations. Blinken and Sullivan were aghast listening to China’s litany of human rights abuses in the United States. Instead of slamming China on Uyghurs, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Blinken should find common ground when dealing with China. Blinken’s approach to China and especially Russia, turns back the clock of U.S. relations with the two nuclear-armed superpowers. Biden needs to rein in Blinken from further alienating Beijing and especially Moscow going forward.
