The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) today published an editorial titled “China’s Warning to Biden. The article mentions that the lessons the U.S. learned in the Alaska talks show that enemy nations smell U.S. weaknesses.
Yang Jiechi, director of the Foreign Affairs Working Committee Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, was in Anchorage, Alaska, last week for the first high-level U.S.-China talks with Biden Administration officials, during which he reprimanded Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
The article points out that this is a new reality in U.S.-China relations, as the enemy is trying to see if it can exploit President Biden’s weaknesses and repeat the same techniques used against former President Obama.
The article mentions that this is just one meeting, but it has set the tone for the most important bilateral relationship in the world. Rumor has it that the Chinese are as tough in their closed-door meeting bickering as they are in their public comments. The Chinese Communist Party is signaling that Beijing wants the United States to return to the Obama-era policy of tolerating Chinese Communist Party advances around the world after years of former President Donald Trump‘s administration.
In its first two months in office, the Biden administration has been strong in its language on various China-related issues. Prior to the Anchorage talks, Blinken and Sullivan orchestrated a series of meetings with Indo-Pacific allies and reached an agreement with South Korea on cost-sharing for troop presence.
But the article stresses that the real challenge for the United States will be how to respond to attempts at aggression from enemy nations such as the Chinese Communist Party, Russia and Iran. The leaders of these three powers still remember how they advanced under Obama when liberal internationalists were in power.
The article notes that the three regional powers are trying to understand whether the new U.S. administration is “Obama 2.0”; the biggest test for the United States will be China, where the Communist Party is increasingly confident that its strategic advantages outweigh those of a declining United States.
The article mentions that for the United States, Taiwan‘s future may be the most worrisome challenge. As a global center of semiconductor production, Taiwan is vital to U.S. economic interests and is also a democratic ally.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has made it clear that retaking Taiwan is a priority and that the Communist Party is building a force that can quickly invade Taiwan. Xi is eager to trade his commitment to climate change for U.S. acquiescence on Taiwan.
The article concludes that the United States is at a dangerous moment as rogue global regimes test the resolve of the Biden administration. The lessons the United States learned at the Anchorage Conference are warnings that must be taken seriously.
Recent Comments