President Biden desperately wants to improve relations with China. As events have shown, the president has much to be concerned about.
After the November 2023 U.S.-China summit in San Francisco, Biden publicly called Chinese president Xi Jinping a dictator. This complicated U.S.-China relations. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, sitting in the front row as Biden spoke, looked seriously ill based on his facial expression.
The summit was a sad event demonstrating how the U.S.-China relationship has suffered under Biden’s presidency.
The Associated Press reported that Biden said the two leaders agreed that if they had a concern, “they should pick up the phone and call one another and we’ll take the call.” Biden said: “That’s important progress.”
This simplistic expression of diplomatic “progress” is a disturbing statement about Biden and U.S.-China relations.
Recently, the FBI warned Congress about the strong threat that China’s spy malware poses to critical U.S. infrastructure, including the electricity grid and water supply. FBI Director Christopher Wray, speaking at the Munich Security Conference, said China was increasingly inserting “offensive (software) weapons within our critical infrastructure poised to attack.”
Tensions between China and Taiwan have increased. Two Chinese fishermen died in a boating accident near a Taiwan military facility in Taiwan’s waters. The fishermen were being pursued by the Taiwanese coast guard when the accident happened. Days later, Taiwan protested to Beijing after the Chinese coast guard boarded a Taiwanese tourist vessel in Taiwan waters. Taiwan and Washington are nervous about this escalation of tensions with China.
The Philippines has accused Beijing of dangerous coast guard ship maneuvers near fishing vessels in the South China Sea. There have been recent collisions between Chinese and Philippine vessels.
These shipping incidents pose a risk of a broader and dangerous international conflict. The United States has a mutual defense treaty with Manila. Every shipping incident between the Philippines and China is closely monitored and studied by intelligence analysts to determine patterns, assess risks and strategize about future actions.
China’s economy is experiencing a host of serious problems. Biden fears China will flood international markets with its oversupply of industrial goods. On February 20, Biden warned Beijing against dumping these goods and disrupting global markets. Electric vehicles, solar panels and lithium-ion batteries are some of the industrial goods mentioned.
Biden plans to send Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to China. Yellen has a large economic agenda to discuss with the Chinese. While she is unlikely to discuss Chinese theft of U.S. intellectual property or China’s dangerous spy malware, there are other important issues. She promises to have “frank conversations” about “difficult issues.” These “difficult issues” include efforts to combat climate change and economic barriers in China’s investment screening programs. The complexity of China’s economic policy is immense.
Cornell University professor Eswar Prasad, a former head of the International Monetary Fund, gave the New York Times an interesting quote about Yellen’s trip. “These trips have considerable significance for preventing any further escalation of hostilities, especially as election-year rhetoric in the U.S. ramps up.”
Economic hostilities? Chinese cyber hostilities against the U.S. financial sector? Perhaps hostilities of another sort?
Russian president Vladimir Putin, in his 2023 end-of-year press conference, said: “The level of our ties with China is at an all-time high.” If Yellen presses China on its relations with Putin, I fear an escalation of hostilities by Russia against Ukraine. The trip could be counterproductive.
Yellen may be looking for something positive to report back to Biden. It might be sufficient if Yellen agrees with her Chinese counterpart that if they have a concern, “they should pick up the phone and call one another and we’ll take the call.”
According to Biden, that would be “important progress.”
