Meeting at the remote Filoli Estate in Woodside, Calif., 25 miles South of San Francisco, 80-year-old President Joe Biden and 70-year-old Chinese President Xi Jimping met f or the first time in over a year, with implications for the 2024 election. Biden has alienated China since taking office Jan. 20, 2021, with his 61-year-old Secretary of State Antony Blinken and 45-year-old National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan accusing Beijing of genocide against Muslim Uyghurs. If that weren’t bad enough, Biden told the press Sept. 27, 2022 that he would commit U.S. troops to defend Taiwan in case of a Beijing invasion. Since the Ukraine War started Feb. 24, 2023, Biden has criticized Xi for not joining his anti-Russian coalition, expecting all nations to punish the Russian Federation. Biden boycotted China’s 2022 winter Olympics with Vladimir Putin attending as a loyal ally.
Biden continued to provoke Communist China, meeting with Indo-Pacific countries to create a NATO-like coalition to counter Chinese aggression in the South and East China Seas. Biden was former President Barack Obama’s Vice President when The Hague’s International Court of Arbitration ruled against China in 2016 for interfering with freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed,” Xi said in his opening remarks sitting across Biden at a long table with Biden’s Cabinet at his side. Biden told Xi he wanted to work toward better communication so neither side would be misinterpreted, something Xi heard but probably didn’t register. Biden would like to restore military cooperation between the two superpowers, something the Pentagon claims has been cut off since Biden committed to sending U.S. troops to defend Taiwan.
No one in the press recognizes mistakes the Biden White House have made with China over nearly three years in office. “As always, there’s no substitute for face-to-face discussions,” Biden told Xi across the table. Biden said he wants the U.S. and China to manage competition “responsibly” without conflict, acting like he’s done nothing to alienate China. Yet when Biden ordered the shoot down Feb. 4 of a Chinese spy balloon, it didn’t sit well with Beijing. “It is unrealistic for one side to remodel the other, and conflict and confrontation has unbearable consequences for both sides,” Xi told Biden. If Biden wishes to de-escalate tensions, he needs to do more than speak in platitudes about global cooperation, when he’s trying to prevent China from obtaining high-capacity computer chips for advanced systems and trying to undermine China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific.
Biden doesn’t understand the concept of linkage in foreign policy, knowing that it’s better to keep adversaries working on common ground, not deliberately antagonizing opponents with threats of military action. When Biden said he would defend Taiwan with U.S. troops, Xi took that as violation of the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act. What was Xi supposed to think when the treaty ended the 1954 Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, requiring the U.S. to accept only one China, the one in Beijing. Biden thinks he can start from square one, forgetting what he’s said and done in recent times. Xi wants to see real action, including movement on the Ukraine War. Biden still resents that China buys cheap Russian oil, bypassing U.S. economic sanctions on the Kremlin. Xi lets Biden know that Putin is an economic, military and strategic ally of the Kremlin, something Biden must accept.
Moving U.S.-Chinese relations forward, Biden must do more than come up with extraneous agreements about AI or Fentanyl. Dealing with the big topics like Ukraine and Taiwan is the only way to develop any real understanding and trust. Biden said he wants better communication but what more needs to be said about the Ukraine War and situation in Taiwan? Keeping China from advanced computer chips or labeling Chinese platforms like TikTock as spying only makes bilateral ties more difficult. Xi plans to meet with CEOs of major U.S. companies doing business in China, including Apple Compute and General Motors. Xi talked about China’s sluggish post pandemic growth, something requiring cooperation between the two superpowers, not less. Biden wanted Xi to use his influence to stop Iran from using its proxy groups to escalate the Israeli war with Hamas in Gaza.
Biden’s attempt to have Xi help to restore some sanity in Iran is precisely why the U.S. must end its proxy war against the Kremlin. Biden has destroyed the linkage needed to conduct U.S. foreign policy, funding a proxy war against the Kremlin. How’s the U.S. supposed to return to normal relations with Moscow when Biden funds a proxy war against the Kremlin? Biden’s foreign policy team can’t expect China to help out with Iran when Biden seeks to topple China’s No 1 ally in Moscow. Biden can’t fathom that it hurts U.S.-Chinese relations when Biden is at war with the Kremlin. Biden can’t expect Xi to ignore his attempts to form a NATO-like Indo-Pacific coalition to confront Chinese aggression the Pacific Rim. Xi sees Biden’s efforts, like Putin did in Eastern Europe, as encroachment, leading to the Feb. 24, 2022 Ukraine invasion. Diplomacy happens when both sides don’t undermine the other.
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.
