When 80-year-old President Joe Biden and 70-year-old President Xi Jinping meet in San Francisco for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit Nov, 13, all eyes will be on the two leaders that haven’t talked since the sidelines of the Nov. 13, 2022 G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. Biden’s last interaction with Xi wasn’t positive with Biden threatening Sept. 27, 2022 to commit troops to defend Taiwan in the event of Beijing invasion. Biden refuses to commit U.S. troops to Ukraine watching the multibillion dollar U.S. commitment to go on indefinitely with a proxy war against the Russian Federation. Biden tried, but failed, to get Xi to back his sanctions against 71-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin to his Feb. 24, 2022 Ukraine invasion. Xi refused to join Biden’s Russian embargo, instead has bought more oil from the Russian Federation than ever before.
So, when it comes to Biden’s attitude toward China, it hasn’t been hospitable, leaving U.S.-Chinese relations on shaky ground. All the fence-mending by 61-year-old Secretary of State Antony Blnken and 45-year-old National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has backfired with both antagonizing Xi rather than defusing a tense standoff, especially over Taiwan. Nothing Biden, Blinken or Sullivan says does anything but provoke Xi and the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]. “A record level of Americans now see China as a critical threat to the United States,” said Dina Smeltz senior fellow in public opinion at the Chicago Council. Opinion has soured on China primarily because of Biden’s acrimonious relations, the worst in generations. Biden accused China in 2021 of genocide against Muslim Uygurs in Western China and a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong.
Like the American public, Xi has been treated with the Biden doing nothing but antagonistic relations, accusing China of intellectual piracy and spying on the U.S. government. When Biden ordered the shoot down of a Chinese spy balloon Feb 4, 2023, U.S.-Chinese relations hit rock bottom. Whether the Chinese balloon really spied on U.S. military bases or not, the F-22 shoot down didn’t sit well with the Xi. But things really deteriorated Sept. 27, 2022 when Xi accused Biden of violating the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act signed into law by former President Jimmy Carter. Carter ended the 1954 Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, prohibiting the U.S. from defending Taiwan for any reason. Yet Biden said that he would send U.S. troops to defend Taiwan, something that would start WW III. Xi has no trust of Biden, knowing he’s the most provocative president in post WW II history.
When Biden wanted Xi’s support in denouncing Putin, Xi agreed with Putin that Biden started the Ukraine War by not negotiating new security arrangements with Ukraine. Xi is 100% convinced that Biden encroached on Russian national security arming Ukraine to the teeth before Putin decided to invade. Biden was quick to say the Ukraine invasion was “unprovoked and unjustified,” something Xi disagreed . Xi sees Bien’s encroachment on Russia the same his U.S. involvement in the Taiwan Strait and South and East China Seas. Xi wasn’t happy with Biden selling Australia U.S.-nuclear submarines to patrol the South and East China Seas. But, more importantly, Xi sees Biden trying to create an Asian NATO to patrol and police China in the Indo-Pacific, getting Japan, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam to join an anti-Beijing coalition in the Pacific Rim.
When Biden meets with Xi at ASEAN in San Francisco this week, there’s not much room for diplomacy without Biden reneging on his statements about committing troops to defend Taiwan. Even though U.S.-Chinese relations were strained during the Trump years with the Covid-19 global pandemic, Trump didn’t make one gaffe after another about Taiwan or trying to subvert Chinese power in the Indo-Pacific region. During Biden’s time a VP with former President Barack Obama, the U.S. received a ruling in The Hague’s International Court of Arbitration in 2016, admonishing China for creating military installations in the South China Sea’s Spratly Islands. China rejected The Hague’s ruling, saying the U.S. had no business meddling in South China Sea or anywhere else in the Indo-Pacific. Xi also rejects Biden’s attempts to prevent China from access to advanced computer chips.
Biden has shown an antagonistic relationship to Communist China like no other president. He’s continued his long Neocon tradition while serving on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, having no trust of Russia or China. When it comes to recent U.S. opinion on China, there’s little doubt that the public picks up on Biden’s antagonism toward Beijing. Whatever differences with Trump, the U.S. maintained cooperative relations with China in hopes to developing better relations with North Korea. Trump was the first U.S. president to visit North Korea June 30, 2018. While hailed as a foreign policy breakthrough by any other president, Trump was vilified in the U.S. press for inappropriate relations with foreign leaders. Now, under Biden, the U.S. is at war with Russia, closer to war with China and with no relations wit North Korea. How does that make the American public feel?
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor on OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.