Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in China today — a make-up trip that was supposed to take place last February except the Chinese rather rudely sent one of their spy balloons, bristling with antennae and communications dishes, across the entire breadth of the United States.
No one in the Biden administration got very upset about the spy balloon transversing over some of the most sensitive military bases in the U.S. After all, it had happened before — several times. In the interest of “good relations,” the Biden administration wasn’t going to say anything. And then a newspaper editor in flyover country caught a glimpse of the balloon flying over the Montana missile fields. At that point, the balloon became an international incident and Blinken was forced to cancel his China trip.
Relations between China and the United States have gotten progressively worse over the last five months. China has been ratcheting up tensions in the South China Sea and Taiwan while helping Russia prosecute its war in Ukraine. To say that Blinken received a frosty reception in Beijing would be an understatement. The Chinese performed the bare minimum of diplomatic courtesies in greeting the U.S. Secretary of State.
But our president didn’t let that cool reception deter him. He went out of his way to apologize for the balloon incident on behalf of China.
“China has some legitimate difficulties unrelated to the United States, and I think one of the things that balloon caused was not so much that it got shot down, but I don’t think the leadership knew where it was, knew what it was in it and what was going on,” he said.
“I think it was more embarrassing than it was intentional,” he said.
God save the queen, right Joe?
To pretend that the Communist leadership of China didn’t know their military was sending a balloon across the entire width of the United States doesn’t pass the smell test. Any provocation like that — and it was a “BFD,” as Biden would say — would require the authorization and support of the highest levels of China’s government.
This week, more than a dozen Republican senators wrote to President Biden, complaining that the administration has not yet given a public account of the spy balloon incident’s “flagrant violation of U.S. sovereignty.”
“While four months have passed since a Chinese surveillance balloon was allowed to fly across the United States, your administration has yet to provide the American people a full accounting of how this spy platform was allowed to traverse across sovereign U.S. territory, what the balloon carried, and what it collected during its mission,” the lawmakers said.
On Saturday, Biden said he hoped to meet with Xi and discuss areas of potential cooperation between the two countries.
“I’m hoping over the next several months, I’ll be meeting with Xi again and talking about legitimate differences we have but also how there are areas we can get along.
Needless to say, Republicans were outraged at Biden’s milquetoast attitude toward the spy balloon.
“I’m not sure how the President could say that with a straight face,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) told The New York Post. “Not only was it intentional, it was a direct threat to our national security. China is our greatest geopolitical foe.”
“Biden has been anything but tough on China,” said Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.). “It seems he’s compromised, which is what the evidence reviewed by the House Oversight Committee suggests.”
Related: Thanks, Joe: Cuba to Host Secret Chinese Spy Base to Surveil U.S.
The Chinese don’t care what Biden thinks. That much is becoming clear, as their increasing aggressiveness toward Taiwan and unilateral moves in the South China Sea attest. President Xi Jiang can see what everyone else can see: the rapidly accelerating mental and physical decline of an American president.
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