National Review Online
Wednesday, November 17, 2021
No one thought that Monday’s three-and-a-half hour
“virtual meeting” between President Biden and General Secretary Xi, convened at
Biden’s request, was going to result in any breakthroughs. Likewise, it’s not
surprising that Biden apparently took a kid-glove approach with the
Chinese Communist Party chief, who is leading an ongoing assault on
international security, human dignity, and democracy.
The meeting, the White House said, was all about urging
the construction of “guardrails” in the U.S.-China competition, urging China to
act responsibly, and setting the stage for future cooperation. Meanwhile, Xi
spent the previous week cementing his perch atop the Chinese party-state,
earning adoption of a resolution that smooths the path toward rule for life and
a mandate to bring about “reunification” with Taiwan.
Biden administration officials told reporters that the
president was coming into the meeting in a strong position after getting his
infrastructure bill through Congress. What went unmentioned was the delay on
passing the annual defense authorization act and the massive bipartisan
investment in research and technologies, such as semiconductors, central to
meeting the China challenge. The White House and congressional Democrats have
prioritized their domestic agenda over national security-related legislation.
Unsurprisingly, these officials also didn’t mention Biden’s dreadful political
standing.
The few concrete developments that resulted from the
meeting hint at worrisome bids for closer engagement, in steps toward
potentially reprising the failed approach to China that was abandoned by Donald
Trump.
National-security adviser Jake Sullivan, speaking about
the call at the Brookings Institution Tuesday morning, mentioned that the two
sides directed their teams to coordinate on ensuring that “global energy supply
and price volatility do not imperil the global economic recovery.” Biden says
the two sides set up four working groups on various issues. And Chinese state
media reported that each of the two sides will start issuing visas to the
other’s journalists, following freezes on that practice. This is a concession
by U.S. officials: “Journalists” from the People’s Republic are actually
apparatchiks writing for state media outlets. As Biden rolls out the red carpet
for Beijing’s propagandists, U.S. outlets re-admitted to China are almost
certain to face undue restrictions on their work.
For the better part of the first ten months of the Biden
administration, officials emphasized a strategic framework within which
Washington would compete “vigorously” with Beijing, while seeking cooperation
on climate change, global public health, and other issues. Early on, there was
a greater focus on the competition side of the ledger, which meant building on
the tougher-minded approach of Trump officials (although Trump himself often
blew rhetorical kisses at Xi): a forward-leaning approach to Taiwan,
unapologetic condemnations of the CCP’s genocide of Uyghurs and assault on
democracy in Hong Kong, and clear-eyed discussion of Beijing’s malfeasance
whenever U.S. officials met their Chinese counterparts.
The Chinese officials obviously did not take well to any
of that and, starting this summer, stonewalled Biden administration bids for
dialogue. They almost stood up Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman when she
visited China in July and wouldn’t put the party’s top defense official on the
phone with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Washington lost its nerve after a
few months, and, in explaining why Biden sought an additional phone call with
Xi in September, U.S. officials said that Biden’s goal was to prevent
competition from veering into conflict.
At the same time, efforts to reach an accord with Beijing
heated up in the lead-up to the COP26 U.N. climate conference, which began at
the start of November. In the waning days of that gathering, John Kerry and his
Chinese counterpart announced a new U.S.-China accord on climate cooperation.
More consequentially, the two sides inaugurated a new “working group” on these
issues. Using this new dialogue as leverage, Beijing can presumably use the
threat of walking away to warn the administration off actions contrary to its
interests.
Already, Kerry has conspicuously ignored Beijing’s
rampant human-rights violations, even those connected with the solar-panel
industry in Xinjiang, saying in Glasgow, “that’s not my lane.” Although Biden did mention
human-rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, he apparently didn’t
speak specifically about the party’s crimes against humanity targeting Uyghurs
and other minorities. And vague mentions of global public health suggest that
he also didn’t press Xi hard on the origins of the coronavirus, amid Chinese
stonewalling of international efforts to investigate the outset of the pandemic
in Wuhan.
On a trip to New Hampshire Tuesday, Biden once again
muddled the U.S. position on Taiwan when he responded to a question about
whether he and Xi made progress on that issue, saying, “It’s independent. It
makes its own decisions.” He later walked back the comment, clarifying that
there’s been no policy change and, “We are not encouraging independence.”
Beijing has zero interest in the true
relationship-building sought by the administration, as its saber-rattling
around Taiwan and its ongoing historic arms buildup attest. We should not, as
Jen Psaki put it upon news of the Chinese hypersonic-missile test, “welcome the
competition.” China’s worsening conduct represents a threat to our national
security and international peace, and Biden needs to treat it as such.
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