Having successfully secured more U.S. taxpayer dollars to line the pockets of their buddies in Ukraine, the Biden administration has now shifted its attention to another geopolitical hotspot: the Indo-Pacific.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in China this week meeting with high-level Chinese Communist Party officials, including his counterpart Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Conversations are expected to center around various issues of contention between Washington and Beijing, such as the Chinese military’s increasingly aggressive behavior in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea. During Thursday talks with CCP officials in Shanghai, Blinken reportedly “raised concerns about (Chinese) trade policies and non-market economic practices,” according to the State Department.
But raising concerns and demonstrating capable U.S. leadership are two different things, the latter of which President Joe Biden has failed to an embarrassing degree. Since taking office, America’s 46th president has crippled his nation’s economy and national sovereignty, while executing a disastrous foreign policy agenda that’s permitted China’s rise to go virtually unchallenged.
When the Parents Are Away, the Children Will Play
Chinese President Xi Jinping has used Biden’s faltering presidency to further his own agenda, such as advancing Beijing’s territorial claims throughout the Indo-Pacific and challenging the existing U.S.-led world order.
In the South China Sea, Chinese military vessels have spent the past several months harassing the Philippines, a U.S. treaty ally. The Philippines currently has sailors stationed at an abandoned warship stationed at the Second Thomas Shoal, a submerged reef in the South China Sea. Manila intentionally grounded the ship there in 1999 to assert its sovereignty over the region.
During recent routine re-supply missions to the shoal, Philippine vessels have come under siege from the Chinese coast guard, whose ships have deployed “grey-zone” tactics “such as use of water cannon, collision and ramming tactics,” according to Reuters. Much like Manila, Beijing claims sovereignty over the region.
Meanwhile, Chinese aggression towards Taiwan has noticeably increased since Biden took office. The island’s defense ministry reported in January it tracked 1,709 Chinese warplanes entering Taiwan’s air defense identification zone in 2023. While the total is a slight decline from the 1,738 detected in 2022, it’s an almost 76 percent increase from “the 972 reported in 2021 — the first full year they were commonplace,” according to Newsweek.
Notably, China deployed several warplanes and naval ships near Taiwan following a phone call between Biden and Xi earlier this month.
Taipei’s defense ministry has also reported incursions by People’s Liberation Army Navy vessels in the waters surrounding the island. Following then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August 2022, China conducted live-fire military exercises in and around the Taiwan Strait. Beijing has used the incident to alter the status quo in the Taiwan Strait by frequently sending its military craft across the Strait’s median line, which had acted as a buffer zone between the two nations for decades.
These actions don’t even include China’s repeated harassment of U.S. military assets in the Indo-Pacific or challenging of Japanese control of the Senkaku Islands.
Weakness at Home Invites Aggression Abroad
China’s increasing aggression abroad isn’t surprising given the destructive behavior and policies Biden has orchestrated at home.
On top of crippling the U.S. economy through massive government spending and restrictive regulations, the Delaware Democrat and his team of Marxist malcontents have done little (if anything) to counter Beijing’s growing interference in America’s domestic affairs. In February 2022, for instance, Biden’s thoroughly corrupt Department of Justice shut down a CCP anti-espionage program because — wait for it — agency officials were worried it would be perceived as racist.
“By grouping cases under the China Initiative rubric, we helped give rise to a harmful perception that the department applies a lower standard to investigate and prosecute criminal conduct related to that country or that we in some way view people with racial, ethnic or familial ties to China differently,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew Olsen said.
It’s worth mentioning that a Chinese national was arrested last month for attempting to drive onto a California Marine Corps base without authorization. While an investigation into the matter remains ongoing, Military.com notes, “rising concerns in the last few years surrounding an apparent influx of Chinese intelligence efforts made around military installations and involving service members.”
And don’t forget when a Chinese spy balloon drifted into U.S. airspace and the Biden administration waited to shoot it down until after it traversed the entire Lower 48 and collected data from U.S. military installations.
Biden’s “Let everyone in!” immigration policies have also created U.S. national security problems, including an alarming increase in the number of Chinese nationals apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border. Last week, the House Committee on Homeland Security released a fact sheet revealing “[s]o far in FY24, 24,376 Chinese nationals have been encountered at the Southwest border.” According to the report, that figure exceeds the number of Chinese nationals encountered at the border throughout the 2023 fiscal year.
These lax enforcement policies are also posing risks to military bases in U.S.-controlled territories such as Guam, where authorities have raised alarm bells in recent weeks about the influx of Chinese nationals attempting to access the island. According to Pacific Daily News, “118 Chinese nationals have been documented trying or succeeding to illegally enter Guam since 2022, and several have been identified on federal watchlists as potential security threats.” Island officials claimed the Biden administration’s deportation restrictions are making it difficult to address the problem.
A New World Order?
Biden’s domestic and foreign policy failures (thus far) are too numerous to detail in one article. But the point remains: America — and the world — cannot afford another four years of Biden as president.
The destruction wrought by his administration has not only led to suffering among millions of Americans; it’s completely destabilized the global security environment. Does anyone genuinely believe it’s a mere coincidence Russia decided to invade Ukraine with Biden in office? Or that Hamas would launch its deadliest terrorist attack yet against Israel? Or that Iran and North Korea would become more aggressive?
Whether it’s botching the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan or leaving America’s border wide open, Biden’s suicidal policies have invited the world’s greatest threats to lash out and advance their agendas without fear of repercussions.
Adversaries such as China recognize weakness — and in Biden, that’s exactly what they see. If not effectively challenged with strong American leadership, Xi’s goal of making China the world’s leading superpower by 2049 may become reality sooner than expected.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
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