World Affairs
Why You Should Be Skeptical Of The New ‘Tough On China’ Joe Biden
The Biden administration is stocking up with the same Democrat establishment cast that supported the project of China’s rise to global dominance.
By Ben Weingarten
February 17, 2021
The Biden administration and its corporate media cheerleaders are at pains to tell you that career-long China kowtower Joe Biden is “tough on China.†But toughness can only be proven by action. Contra the official narrative, however, President Biden’s initial policies and those tasked with implementing and building upon them do not indicate strength. Rather, to America’s detriment, they signal a reversion to the status quo ante of weakness.
The media has trumpeted Biden administration rhetoric on three key China-related issues: the administration’s affirmation — with caveats — of the Trump administration’s designation of the Chinese Communist Party’s atrocities in Xinjiang as constituting “genocideâ€; its pledge of a “rock-solid commitment†to Taiwan; and its promise to maintain a “free and open†Indo-Pacific — again, with caveats.
The media also celebrated the Biden administration’s most authoritative statements on U.S.-China policy yet, from a readout of the president’s first call with Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping, and related statements by officials on the administration’s China strategy. Headlines about the call claimed Biden “confronted†Xi with “concerns†about contentious issues such as human rights, trade, and Taiwan. Chinese state media, of course, saw it quite differently — as an amiable and welcome reversal of Trump’s tough on China stance.
American corporate media also reported that Biden staffers embraced the idea America is in an “intense strategic competition with China,†and would be maintaining some of the Trump administration’s policies — a tacit admission of Trump’s relative toughness.
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https://thefederalist.com/2021/02/17/why-you-should-be-skeptical-of-the-new-tough-on-china-joe-biden/
