Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, 60, called out 69-year-old Chinese President Xi Jinping for his Moscow visit with 70-year-old President Vladimir Putin. President Joe Biden, 80, has been critical of Xi from Day One, alienating the world’s No. 2 economy and nuclear superpower, in an unprecedented aggressive foreign policy. Biden and Blinken have been especially critical of Xi about his close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, especially after the Feb. 24, 2022 Ukraine War where Putin invaded Ukraine to stop the flow of arms from the United States and NATO. No one in the West buys Putin’s concern about arming Ukraine, instead fighting a bloody proxy war against the Russian Federation, arming Kiev with almost every possible weapon system, short of fighter jets and nuclear arms. Biden and Blinken slam Xi for violating the U.S. oil embargo against the Russian Federation.
All previous generations of U.S. presidents accepted the fact that Russia and China were joined at the hip because of their communist ideology, a different world view and political system to Western capitalism. While Russia and China made strides over the years to develop market economies, they remain true to their totalitarian pasts, controlling most aspects of Russian and Chinese societies. Yet for Biden and Blinken, maintaining good trade and diplomatic relations were not enough, harping on alleged human right abuses. Blinken and 45-year-old National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan slammed China in their first summit March 18, 2021 for committing genocide against Muslim Uygurs in Western China. Xi took great offense, denying that the communist state did anything wrong. Biden told Putin that same day he was a “soulless killer,” harming U.S. Russian relations.
When Putin hosted Xi at the Kremlin yesterday and today, both communist powers pledge political and military cooperation. Blinken accused China recently of providing Putin with economic and military assistance, infuriating the White House. Things are so bad with U.S.-Chinese relations that Xi considers military conflict over Taiwan. Biden pledged military support for Taiwan Sept. 23, 2022, saying he would commit U.S. troops to defend the island nation against a possible Beijing take over. Beijing considered Biden’s statements a violation of the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, where former President Jimmy Carter pledged diplomatic relations with only one China, the one in Beijing. Blinken slammed Xi for not taking the U.S. side in the war in Ukraine, giving aid-and-comfort to Putin. Blinken refuses to accept that Chinese-Russian relations supersede the White House.
Boxing U.S. foreign policy into a corner, the Biden White House has left U.S.-Russia and U.S.-Chinese relations in shambles. Both countries, especially Russia, are close to breaking of relations. “The fundamental elements of an plan for ending war in Ukraine and producing a just and durable peace must be upholding sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, in accordance with the United Nations Charter,” Blinken said. Blinken doesn’t recognize the fact that Russia has played a part since 2014 of defending Russian-speaking enclaves in Ukraine. Putin has had Russian troops in Ukraine defending Donetsk and Luhansk since the Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed coup that toppled the Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych. On March 1, 2014, Putin annexed Crimea to protect his Sevastopol naval base, something that Ukraine’s 45-year-old President Volodymyr Zelnesky wants back.
Blinken insists on following Zelensky’s 10-point plan for any ceasefire and peace talks, requiring Russian troops to pull out of Ukraine. But Putin had troops in Ukraine before the war and plans to keep them to protect new areas annexed since the Ukraine War. Zelensky has lost 25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory, now scrambling to reclaim the territory using more lethal U.S. weapons. Blinken has done nothing to promote peace in Ukraine other than lecture Putin on accepting Zelensky’s demands. “Any plan that does not prioritize this critical principal is a stalling tactic at best or is merely seeking to facilitate an unjust outcome. That is not constructive diplomacy,” Blinken said. So if Putin doesn’t accept Zelensky or Blinken’s fornula for peace, there’s only war, not peace. Blinken needs to stop dictating Zelensky’s terms to the Kremlin and let U.N. peacemakers formulate a constructive peace plan.
Biden and Blinken can no more call the shots on ending the Ukraine War than Putin. U.N. peacemakers must come up with a neutral peace process, whether in Istanbul or some other place, that satisfies both sides for impartiality. Zelensky wants to retake Crimea by force something that would escalate the conflict more than the destruction seen during in the first year. If Biden and Zelensky want to serve a constructive role, they need to let the U.N. do is chartered job of peacemaking. Blinken talks about the U.N. Charter like the U.S. followed it when it invaded Iraq in 2003 or any other U.N.-recognized state. “That President Xi is traveling to Russia days after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for President Putin suggests that China feels no responsibility to hold the Kremlin responsible . . “ Blinken said, further alienating U.S.-Chinese relations.
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.
