Talking tough to CBS “60 Minutes” about China’s disrupted the “rules based order,” 58-year-old Secretary of State Blinken said all the wrong things heading into the G7 summit in London starting May 3. Blinken and 44-year-old National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan started off on the wrong foot March 18 at a get-to-know you summit in Anchorage, Alaska, where Blinken and Sullivan accused China of genocide against Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjian province. Instead of listening to China’s concerns, Blinken and Sullivan slammed China for a variety of human rights abuses from Hong Kong to Taiwan, and of course to the Uyghurs. President Joe Biden, 78, has turned his Secretary of State into a moral oracle, spewing criticism of every sovereign state except the United State. Blinken and Sullivan heard a mouthful from China at Anchorage, telling the U.S. to get off its high horse.
Senior foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi told Blinken and Sullivan in Anchorage that no country that treats its African Americans so poorly should lecture other nations about human rights. Biden admitted Jan. 27 to the world that the U.S. was a “systemically racist” country, something heard loud-and-clear in Beijing, Moscow and other foreign capitals. Things have got so bad between the U.S. and China, “60 Minutes” asked whether the U.S. and China were headed to a military confrontation. “It’s profoundly against the interests of both China and the United States to get to that point, or even to head in that direction,” Blinken said, ironically knowing that he’s responsible for the incendiary rhetoric that’s pushed the U.S. and China to the brink of confrontation. If Biden and Blinker believe that war is not the answer, why are they acting so belligerently toward China?
Blinken acts like there’s nothing differently he could have done since becoming Secretary of State Jan. 26. Biden and Blinken have been an obnoxious tag-team with China, bashing the Peoples Republic of China for cracking down on pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, threatening Taiwan and accusing Beijing of genocide against the Uyghurs in Western China. Blinken accused China “of someone who’s trying to compete unfairly and increasingly in adversarial ways. But we’re much more effective and stronger when we’re bringing like-minded and similarly aggrieved countries together to say to Beijing: ‘This can’t stand and it won’t stand,’” Blinken said. Blinken’s trying to get a coalition of countries to confront China, something that the Pacific Rim and Europe wants to avoid. Biden and Blinker’s anti-China coalition will only make things worse for the U.S. and other sovereign states.
Blinken talks about a “rules based system” that follows international laws on copyrights and patents, something China’s historically ignored. Philippines 76-year-old President Rodrigo Duterte complained today about China building military installations on shallow atolls in the Spratly Islands chain in the South China Sea. U.S. officials sued China in the International Criminal Court at the Hague, Netherlands, getting a ruling July 12, 2016 against China. China ignored the ruling since by the Hague isn’t recognized by China, or, for that matter, the United States. So without an enforcement mechanism, rulings by the Hague are only symbolic, only something to debate at the U.N. or other international conferences. Blinken wants to lead a global coalition against China but no one’s willing to enforce the consequences. China goes about its foreign policy with impunity.
Blinken has talked tough from Day One, acting like the Biden administration speaks for the European Union and the Pacific Rim countries. Using human rights as the basis for conducting a foreign policy is bound to fail. What’s Biden and Blinken saying when a U.S. president admits that the United States is a “systemically racist” country? China’s foreign ministry team told the U.S. delegation in Anchorage to stop lecturing other nations about human rights. Chinese officials told Blinken and Sullivan to get their own house in order, especially its treatment of African citizens and Native Americans. When Blinken accused China of “genocide” against Muslim Uyghurs, China pointed out the U.S. long history with Blacks and Native Americans. Now Biden thinks the G7 is naïve enough to join a human rights coalition against China.
Biden and Blinken should stick to the strict parameters followed by the Trump administration that stayed clear of accusing sovereign states of human rights abuses. When you think that Biden told Russian President Vladimir Putin March 16 he was a “soulless killer,” foreign leaders gasped at the temerity. Biden and Blinken think that other sovereign states are willing to take such a narrow moral line when dealing with Russia and China. When you look at Biden slapping sanctions on Russia over its treatment of Russian dissident Alexi Navalny, it’s astonishing they’re willing to destroy U.S.-Russian relations. Now Blinken asks the G7 to join his folly slamming Beijing for human rights abuses or breaching intellectual property. Biden and Blinken needs to get off the pretentious moral superiority and respect the fact that other countries don’t share the same hypocritical values as the U.S.
