Joe Biden was asked Thursday during a press conference with Indian President Modi if he is concerned about Chinese President Xi Jinping’s reaction to his remarks at a fundraiser in California. No, not Joe. He doubled down and said the remarks are “just not something I’m going to change very much.”
The Biden administration is doing its best to make nice with China. Granted, their best is not good enough, but a least they acknowledge the strain in the relationship between the leader of the free world and the Communist Chinese leader who wants to take over as the world’s top superpower. Remember in 2020 when Barack Obama said, “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up?” That comes to mind a lot these days. It’s fine with me when he is doing that in domestic politics and Republicans can make hay with his missteps. It’s another thing when his flubs affect international relations. That’s a national security problem. Xi was insulted. Who knows what he’ll do next? He called Xi a dictator.
Is it ok that Biden popped off about the Chinese spy balloon and Xi during an event with big Democrat donors? They were surprised that he was giving them information not made public before that event. So were some U.S. officials. A group of about 130 donors were gathered in California and he said he didn’t think Xi knew where the spy balloon was so he was embarrassed by that lack of information. An anonymous source confirmed Biden’s comments were accurate.
The Pentagon won’t comment on Biden’s comments to a bunch of big-dollar donors at a campaign event. The campaign isn’t talking either. That talking out of turn by Biden was just days after he said he thought it was not intentional, but embarrassing, which is a truly naive point of view.
“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,” Biden said Saturday. “I think it was more embarrassing than it was intentional.”
All of this is a lack of judgement on Biden’s part. It is just another example to add to the list that shows Biden is not up to the job. Who knows what classified or highly sensitive information Biden has spouted off about to people without security clearances? Obama once said he was often riled up that Biden would often say anything that came to mind without thinking before speaking.
While Biden may think that nothing has changed and Xi is not bothered with the remarks, Xi has a different opinion. The Chinese embassy in Washington delivered a formal protest through its Chinese ambassador.
The remarks, which drew a formal protest from China, opened a new rift just after Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded a visit to Beijing that was meant as a step toward stabilizing ties and improving communications.
But Biden was undeterred.
“I expect to be meeting with President Xi sometime in the future, near-term. And I don’t think it’s had any real consequence,” he said, speaking during a White House news conference alongside visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Just hours earlier, however, China’s embassy in Washington said it had delivered a formal protest, with Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng telling senior White House and State Department officials Wednesday that Washington “should take earnest actions to undo the negative impact” of what Biden said or “bear all the consequences.”
Imagine being so reckless with his words while the secretary of state was in China. Heaven help us all.
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