Sending 76-year-old Treasury Secretary Jane Yellen to Beijing, 80-year-old President Joe Biden throws in the towel on trying to get along with the Chinese Communist Party. Biden and his national security team led by 60year-old Secretary of State Antony Blinken and 45-year-old National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan have done nothing but alienate 70-year-old Chinese President Xi Jinping since taking office Jan. 20, 2021. Blinken and Sullivan accused Communist China of genocide against Muslim Uyghurs and a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong. When Blinken and Sullivan met with senior Chinese diplomats Mach 18, 2021, it set the tone for today’s abysmal relations. Biden pounded the last nails in the U.S.-China coffin, saying Sept. 23, 2022 that he would commit U.S. troops to defending Taiwan in the event of an attempted Mainland Chinese takeover.
Xi has been threatening Taiwan for over a year since 83-year-old former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan April 4, 2022, pledging U.S. loyalty to the island nation. Beijing warned Pelosi to stay away from Taiwpei, promising a fierce response to her visit. Since then, Beijing has been breaching Taiwan’s Defense Security Zone, sending bombers and warship into the Taiwan Strait. Xi viewed Pelosi’s visit and Biden’s statement of defending Taiwan with U.S. troops as a clear violation of the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act. When Biden said he would defend Taiwan with U.S. troops it rocked Beijing, realizing the Biden has not committed troops to Ukraine. Ukraine’s 45-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky was stunned that Biden would defend Taiwan but not Kiev. Ze;lensky can’t understand the game Biden plays funding the Ukraine War but not committing U.S. troops.
Biden’s relations have deteriorated with China to the lowest levels since the 1949 Maoist Revolution. Sending Yellen was Biden’s attempt to ignore his past mistakes and hope that Yellen could get U.S.-Chinese relations back on come common ground. But Xi knows that Biden has tried with Indo-Pacific partners to develop a NATO-like coalition to confront Beijing’s aggression in the South China and East China Seas. China resets U.S. provocation in the Indo-Pacific region, especially running U.S. warships through the region to prove the U.S. point about freedom of navigation. U.S. won its case July 12, 2016 in The Hague’s International Court of Arbitration, ruling that China should accept freedom of navigation in the region. China rejected The Hague’s ruling, saying instead that China would defend its territory, even when The Hague rules that China must follow the rules-based order.
When it comes to sending Yellen to Beijing, she has almost soothing to say about the thorny Taiwan issue that prompts a fierce response from Beijing. Chinese Premier Li Qiwag told Yellen that neither country would benefit from a trade war. “You may disagrree,” Yellen told Li Qiang. “But we should not allowed any disagreement to lead to misunderstanding that needlessly worsens our bilateral economic and financial relationship,” China is especially irked over Washington’s attempt to limit the amount of sophisticate computer chips sent to Beijing. Yellen tries find common ground with Beijing but delivered a tough message as if things weren’t bad enough. “We are still evaluating the impact of these actions,” Yellen said. “But they remind us of the importance of diversified supply chains,” said Yellen. Xi isn’t happy with the U.S. restricting export of computer chip
China doesn’t want to hear from Yellen, it wants to hear that Biden has a different attitude, not one that’s pushing war in Taiwan. Xi wasn’t kidding when he said he wanted the Peoples Liberation Army [PLA] to gear up for war with the United States. Spending State Department time trying to put together an Pacific Rim anti-China coalition sends the exact wrong signal to Beijing. Whatever Yellen accomplishes, Xi doesn’t want to hear more excuses about Taiwan or Hong Kong. “You may disagree,” Yellen told Premier Li Qiang. “But we should not allow an disagreement to lead to misunderstandings that needlessly worsen our bilateral economic and financial relationships,” Yellen said. What Beijing wants to hear is that the U.S. still abides by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, requiring the U.S. to recognize only one China, the one in Beijing, not defending Taiwan.
Yellen’s economic mission isn’t enough to turn around deteriorated U.S.-Chinese relations. On and economic level, the U.S. and China, the world’s two biggest economies, have $700 billion in bilateral trade. China doesn’t want to hear about a chip war in which the U.S. tries to harm China economically by denying it the chips it needs to advance various industries. Unless Biden changes his tune, lets go of pressuring Beijing to denounce Russian President Vladimir Putin, all of Yellen’s economic talk won’t turn things around. China needs U.S. chips and the U.S. needs China’s raw materials, especially lithium used in EV battery production. Biden must get his national security team on the same page before the situation with Taiwan spins out-f-control. Beijing needs less lecturing from Washington on human rights and more reassurance that the U.S. recognizes only one China.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
