Recently, Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to China to discuss the rapidly deteriorating relationship between our two countries. It’s safe to say the People’s Republic of China is the United States’ largest global competitor, both militarily and economically. Despite the differences, we have, for a number of years, enjoyed an uneasy détente due to our interconnected markets.
Those days, however, are coming to an end, and the Biden administration seems to lack the willpower to stop what’s coming next—war.
If you watched any coverage of Blinken’s trip abroad, you might be led to believe his conversations with China achieved some level of success. Sadly, nothing could be further from the truth.
On June 17, President Joe Biden downplayed the Chinese incursion of U.S. airspace by a spy balloon in late January saying, “I don’t think the leadership knew where it was, and knew what was in it, and knew what was going on. I think it was more embarrassing than it was intentional.”
We shot the spy balloon down, but now a blatant violation of our sovereignty by China is “embarrassing”? It is, but not for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The Biden administration had hoped, at the very least, to reestablish a de-escalation process by reopening military communications between the United States and China. They failed to do so.
Why? Is there a proven strategy to which we can look to best handle the CCP? Yes, and it was created by President Ronald Reagan.
Early in his presidency, Reagan clearly spelled out his philosophy, saying in response to a question about his plans to deal with the communists in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the Cold War, “We win, they lose.”
Our 40th president saw the situation as more than just a national security issue. In his mind, it was a fundamental battle between good and evil—just as ours is today with the CCP. Reagan labeled the Soviet Union an evil empire in a speech before religious leaders during the height of the Cold War. He knew we had to do more than contain communism, we had to transcend it. With his leadership, that’s exactly what we did.
Unfortunately, it seems some Americans (including those currently occupying the White House) have forgotten the time-tested values that have made our nation the envy of the free world. We are in danger of losing the very freedoms so many died to protect when we allow CCP aggression and human rights violations to go unaddressed.
Earlier this year, the leader of China, Xi Jinping, said his country is preparing for war. At the annual meeting of China’s National People’s Congress, Xi spoke of readiness to fight and announced a more than 7 percent increase in China’s defense budget.
At the same time, the CCP is waging a targeted campaign against Uyghurs and other minority groups in the Xinjiang region of China. The State Department has documented human rights abuses, including “coercive population control methods, forced labor, arbitrary detention in internment camps, torture, physical and sexual abuse, mass surveillance, family separation, and repression of cultural and religious expression.”
In addition to massive increases in their defense budget and human rights abuses, the CCP continues to engage in intellectual property theft and computer system hacking. They are indeed the new evil empire.
With each passing day, the Taiwanese people see their country under increasing threat of invasion—all because they have the audacity to stand for freedom against CCP aggression.
Did Blinken take the opportunity while in Beijing to defend the right of Taiwan to remain free? In a statement that was a departure from Biden’s promise (made in September 2022) of U.S. troops to defend the island from CCP threats, Blinken seemed to indicate the opposite is now true, saying, “We do not support Taiwan independence.”
Just as Reagan had the moral courage to call out the leaders of the Soviet Union, we must be prepared to do the same with the leaders of the CCP. Our weakness only invites more aggression from China. If we continue in complacency, our shining city on the hill may cease to exist for future generations who seek a better life.
We are already in a new cold war with the CCP, one that without bold leadership may soon turn hot. We can only fight it effectively if we have leaders willing to stand up to them. As Americans, we have a legacy built on freedom, the very antithesis of what the CCP stands for. The CCP only understands strength, and if we want peace, that’s exactly what we must show them.
