Beijing’s recent, major moves expose President Joe Biden’s haplessness on foreign policy.
Chinese supremo Xi Jinping heads to Moscow soon to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with help arming Russia for its Ukraine war surely on the table. And Xi is also bruiting a meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
All this shows that Beijing is growing ever-more comfortable with an increasingly absent Washington as a world-stage player — and that Xi has Biden’s number precisely.
The aging US president still hesitates on the Ukraine war, sticking to a dribs-and-drabs approach that fails to give our Ukrainian allies a clear edge. Just as the White House has no viable strategy to stop China from stepping in.
Alas, this is no surprise. Consider the shock diplomatic deal the Middle Kingdom brokered between Saudi Arabia and Iran last week.
Whether it lasts or not, that the deal was done at all with China as presiding power is a major coup for Beijing.
Yet Biden’s foreign policy failures, especially in the Middle East, began before he came into office. He blared his intent to sideline the Saudis on the campaign trail, saying he’d make the kingdom a “pariah.” In office, he sought closer ties to Iran by doing his utmost to revive the disastrous Obama nuclear deal.
The result? No new nuke deal (thankfully) and a humiliating rebuke by the Saudis when Biden asked them to ease off on OPEC output cuts.
Just how all this played to Xi, a master strategist, is hideously evident today.
We stand helpless as an increasingly aggressive China shores up its cred with a deal between two of the region’s bitterest rivals and looks set to wade into an even bigger struggle.
But don’t expect China’s big moves to prompt Back-Foot Biden to rethink his approach to foreign affairs. After all, he’s smugly refused to face the predictably terrible results of his domestic policies.
At 80, this tiger won’t be learning any new tricks.