US President Joe Biden has done what was feared the most out of his advent into the White House— he has capitulated before Chinese President Xi Jinping and in the process, he has thrown Taiwan under the bus and shot down the Quad’s ultimate purpose. As the President fails to shake off the remains of the fossilised US policy that abetted and enriched China, the Democrat’s experience of fifty years in politics, as it turns out, is proving to be more of a bane than a boon to the White House.
The latest conversation between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping has been sold by most of the Western media as the moment when Biden warns Jinping of “consequences” if China assists Russia in its military conquest of Ukraine. However, the readout released by the Chinese is far more concerning and needs our attention, for it shows how Biden sought to appease the Chinese President, with a tediously profound declaration of intent.
While the White House’s readout said that President Biden “reiterated that U.S. policy on Taiwan has not changed, and emphasised that the United States continues to oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo,” the Chinese readout goes deeper into the details which are concerning, to say the least. President Biden seems to have made an attempt to soothe Jinping’s ego and said that the US does not seek a new Cold War with China and does not aim to change China’s system. He assured the Chinese that the “revitalisation of its alliances is not targeted at China” in what can be seen as a reference to the Quad, and throwing “strategic ambiguity” for a toss, Biden clarified that the US does not support “Taiwan independence” and has no intention to seek a conflict with China. In fact, the President expressed his commitment to the one-China policy.
China has made sure to highlight this heartfelt declaration by the US President. Xi Jinping said, “I take these remarks very seriously,” according to the readout.
Pushing further, the Chinese President warned, “some people in the US have sent a wrong signal to “Taiwan independence” forces. This is very dangerous. Mishandling of the Taiwan question will have a disruptive impact on the bilateral ties.” The Chinese President wants “some people in the US” to act on Joe Biden’s “positive statements”.
‘Dump Russia is all I ask of you’
By the looks of the exchange, it appears that China indeed played the upper hand which was made easier by President Biden’s many concessions. This call was not made to “warn” China of consequences for helping Russia, rather it was to implore Jinping to cooperate with a sincere expression of enduring commitment to reinstate ties to their pre-Trump state.
Biden seems to be willing to forget the Uighur Muslims’ genocide, Hong Kong’s complete takeover by the Chinese Communist Party and the crackdown on pro-democracy forces, and the fact that Beijing is seriously and unabashedly contemplating an invasion of Taiwan and regularly deploys its jets to violate Taiwanese airspace, a tactic that it freely uses to torment and exhaust Taiwan’s security forces. The only ask of the Biden Administration from Beijing right now is that it drops its support for Russia, but that ship has already sailed.
Also Read: The West Failed Ukraine. It’s a Warning Sign For Taiwan As China Takes Cue From Russia
In the process, however, Biden has managed to deal a heavy blow to the Quad, which was emerging as a promising precursor to an Indo-Pacific alliance of like-minded democracies coordinating efforts to keep Chinese expansionism at bay. Biden has also left Taiwan stranded and vulnerable to Chinese aggression, substantially hurting the position of Tsai Ing-wen’s popular regime in Taipei. And this is not the first time that Taiwan has been subjected to the Biden administration’s flip-flops.
The China-Russia ship has sailed
The Biden Administration’s attempt to pull China out of the Russia-China axis is a ridiculous mockery of its actual duties. China which has the clear intention and the potential to shake up the global order is the main challenge here and so it is Russia that needs to be pulled out of the axis, and this was still possible until recent escalations preceded by Nato’s undeniable provocations, as Russia too has a tendency to be wary of China’s growing power. If a ‘limitless’ relationship exists between Russia and China today, it is because Western sanctions have left Russia with fewer markets to woo and therefore, greatly dependent on China. Add to that how Moscow has embraced Chinese payment systems to offset the Western backlash— be it the alternative to SWIFT, the shift to China’s UnionPay to shrug off the effect of Mastercard and Visa’s exit, the use of the Chinese Yuan as a global reserve currency, as well as a benchmark currency for payments, in an endorsement of its “stability”.
Also Read: West is Effete on Russia And Has No Chance of Taming China. India Wise to Stay Away
For Joe Biden to take the US from pinpointing China’s authoritarian tendencies and identifying the challenge it poses to the US-led world order, to now expecting that China would reinstate trust in the US and drop Russia is naive and problematic for it will achieve nothing but a more emboldened China, confident in its efforts to advance its expansionist agenda, eat into the dollar’s space and challenge the USA’s stature in the world. What the Biden Administration is doing here is a worrying sight of sheer incompetence and delinquency, playing right into the hands of Xi Jinping, marking an ominous shift in world affairs and buttressing the need for diversifying alliances and banking on a multilateral global order.
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