Biden Admin Bows to Beijing

The optics of secretary of state calling on the CCP leadership instead of the reverse show an obvious and dangerous shift in the U.S.-China relationship

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (C) meets with China's Foreign Minister Qin Gang (not pictured) at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on June 18, 2023. Leah Millis/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Commentary

The fact that U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has flown to China to discuss key points of contention indicates that the United States is more concerned about what China might do instead of China being concerned about potential U.S. actions across a spectrum of issues.

In other words, the Biden administration appears to be in a reactive posture with regard to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rather than adopting a forward-leaning posture of leadership.

Is US Leadership Weak?

Typically, on the world stage, the weaker side comes to the strong. That reality isn’t lost on the CCP. Listening to Blinken’s words spoken from Beijing, it is apparent that the United States wants or seeks China’s cooperation and assurances much more than China wants or needs from the United States.

How do we know this?

It’s fairly discernable from recent events, particularly the Chinese spy balloon incident a few months back. A few simple questions about that event can shed much light on the current state of affairs between the United States and China.

For example, what price did China pay for floating its spy balloon across the United States from sea to shining sea?

What were the consequences of that balloon mapping the terrain below with high-resolution cameras daily before it was shot down?

Did China’s ambassador to the United States pay a formal visit to the White House and explain how and why the CCP was sending spy balloons over the United States?

Did the CCP leadership in Beijing publicly apologize to the United States and the American people for their provocative act of spying?

How did the United States punish China for crossing over sensitive nuclear missile bases and sites, monitoring communications, and perhaps other classified telemetry?

The cost to the Chinese was unreasonably steep in that the Biden administration postponed Blinken’s visit to Beijing. In other words, Beijing paid zero consequences for its undeniable spy balloon campaign. In fact, it condemned the United States for shooting it down.

Just as bad, Washington refused to call the incident what it really was, nor hold Beijing accountable for its actions. Instead, the Biden administration characterized the whole affair as simply an “irresponsible act” on the part of Beijing.

Nations around the world must have wondered why the United States didn’t shoot the balloon down immediately rather than allow it to make its way across the country.

Two possibilities come immediately to mind.

First, one could surmise that the Biden administration was afraid of Beijing’s reaction if the United States interfered with the balloon’s flight across the United States. In other words, the administration appears weak.

Second, it just could be that, with all of the alleged revelations of the Biden family taking multi-million-dollar payoffs from China, Beijing has purchased the administration’s cooperation for such acts of espionage. That also indicates weakness.

US on Path of Decline and Humiliation Before China

There certainly is no answer to the Biden administration’s reaction to the spy balloon questions that would eliminate rightful suspicion that the administration is leading the United States down a path of decline. In this instance, the U.S. reputation, both diplomatically and militarily, is rapidly declining. On the flip side, communist China’s influence in the world is growing at the expense of the United States.

More specifically, Blinken’s presence in Beijing is nothing less than the United States humbling itself before China, our allies in the Far East, and the rest of the world. It constitutes a total loss of face for the United States in the region. That’s a big deal. For cultures in that part of the world, particularly in China and Japan, losing face is to be avoided if possible.

This isn’t the first time. Recall that in March 2021, at the beginning of the Biden administration, Chinese officials gave the administration a very direct and humiliating dressing down in Anchorage, Alaska.

The submission by the Biden administration to Beijing appears to be either ignorance about Chinese culture, which isn’t likely, or a willful submission of American power to China.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.