It was another colossal pack of lies at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in San Francisco last month, when Presidentish Joe Biden boasted he'd had "some of the most constructive and productive discussions" with Communist Chinese strongman Xi Jinping.
While the two smiled and shook hands for the cameras, in private, Xi had a chilling message for Biden that we're only now finding out about — five weeks after APEC ended.
The major point of contention between the two nation's chiefs was over Taiwan but Biden described the discussion as “clear-headed” and “not heated.” Furthermore, Biden said that after talking with Xi, he "expects no interference" from Beijing in Taiwan's election scheduled for January.
But behind closed doors, NBC News reported on Wednesday, Xi told Biden point-blank that Beijing "will reunify Taiwan with mainland China but that the timing has not yet been decided." Xi also reportedly told Biden he would "prefer" to take Taiwan peacefully but, hey, sometimes amphibious and airborne invasions on a scale not seen since World War II happen.
This is all according to three current and former U.S. officials who attended the "constructive and productive discussions" and spoke with NBC. While one of the unnamed officials claimed that Xi's "language was no different than what he has always said," it still stands in stark contrast to Biden's comments.
Xi also told Biden — and this was on the record in November — that "The U.S. side should ... stop arming Taiwan and support China’s peaceful reunification." The not-so-veiled threat of war is something we're only finding out about today.
And let's be clear about what Xi means by a peaceful reunification. His is the Al Capon version: "You get a lot more reunification from a kind word and a gun than from a kind word alone."
NBC attempted to put a positive spin on the story in this paragraph:
Xi, who has set a goal of doubling the size of the Chinese economy by 2035, also said that "we must continue to pursue economic development as our central task." Some experts believe it is doubtful that China would attack Taiwan if it does not declare independence because a military conflict would likely prevent Beijing from reaching its economic goals.
But China's days of super-rapid growth appear to be over. Nationalistic saber-rattling — right in the face of a U.S. president, no less — doesn't usually indicate a healthy economy or political culture. Or it could be that Xi is feeling friskier than ever, as countries from Russia, Iran, and Venezuela (and their proxies in places like Gaza and Yemen) sense Biden's weakness and move in for the kill.
War is a risky business but two things strike me about Xi. One is that he would dearly like to see Taiwan integrated into the CCP regime on his watch. The other is that while it is his preference to do so peacefully, when and if Xi does decide on the timing, it will be up to Taiwan — under threat of invasion and saturation by thousands of ballistic missiles — to decide whether they get Xi's kind word and his gun, or just the gun.
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