For many years, American presidents have sought to have a civilized working relationship with China. We’ve met with them. We’ve traded with them. We’ve allowed hundreds of thousands of their young people to be enrolled and educated at our greatest collegiate institutions. We’ve competed with them at the Olympics (and the Winter Olympics next year will be held in China.)
But China’s current president, Xi Jinping has set a new, far more dangerous, path for China. The tradition for decades has been that China’s president can serve to 2 five year terms. Xi is ending that common-sense restraint against unlimited power (like Putin has done in Russia.) He’s much more in the mold of Mao Zedong than any leader since Mao. He’s purged internal opposition in China so he can now govern as he sees fit. And his ultimate goal is for China to rule the world. For China to call the shots, and other nations to do as they’re told.
Various aspects of the plan are already underway. The Chinese economy over the past half-century has gone from an afterthought to on the brink of becoming the strongest on the globe. They’ve done this to a considerable degree by stealing the intellectual property of others, strong-arming countries to locate their businesses within China, and successfully and blatantly implementing unfair trade practices.
Xi is building up Chinese military forces to soon rival the United States. They already have more troops, but that’s not surprising when one considers that their population is four times the size of the United States. The fact that their weaponry and technology is getting closer and closer to matching our own is what is particularly disturbing. For example, their Navy already has more ships than the US Navy. And their missile technology makes our aircraft carriers particularly vulnerable.
The Biden administration thus far has been too slow in countering the China threat. Why is this? Principally because Biden is afraid that pushing back too aggressively against China might jeopardize climate change talks that John Kerry is having with China. That’s a shame, because whatever China agrees to on climate change, would be commitments way down the road, which they’re very unlikely to implement anyway.
There are two things that the Biden administration is doing to counter China that I actually agree with. Last week President Biden met with Prime Minister Suga of Japan, Prime Minister Modi of India, and Prime Minister Morrison of Australia. These three nations, along with United States, make up the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, more simply known as the QUAD. These nations have joined together as the four major democracies on the Pacific Rim, to counter China’s growing aggression on the world scene. I fully support this effort.
The other thing I would commend President Biden on, is the agreement last week to create a security pact between the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States called AUKUS. It was announced along with word that Australia was going to dump a diesel submarine deal with France, and replace it with nuclear subs from the UK. This was the right thing to do, as diesel subs must periodically surface to recharge their batteries, during which time they are vulnerable to attack. Nuclear subs can stay submerged for far longer periods of time without resurfacing, and this makes them much safer from attack (from China.) My only criticism is that I believe more of an effort should have been made to keep our NATO ally France in the loop. France was so upset that they pulled their ambassador, and are still loudly protesting (not surprisingly.)
The bottom line is, China is going to be our principal rival/adversary for decades to come. The sooner we focus our economic, diplomatic, and military best efforts at countering the China threat, the better off we’ll be. This is the principal challenge of our time.