Last week's visit to the People's Republic of China by the former U.S. Secretary of State and the Biden administration's Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John F. Kerry, represents the end of the beginning of a series of high-level Biden administration visits with Chinese Communist Party leaders.
The purpose of these visits that started with current Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June and included the kowtowing visit by U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen can best be described as the unashamed resumption of the Kissinger School of Engagement with the PRC. Given the PRC's threat to U.S. national interests and the American homeland, including the death of 100,000 Americans from PRC-supplied fentanyl and other expression of unilateral aggression by the CCP in its pursuit of its so-called Great Rejuvenation of China, it is hard to fathom why the Biden administration would reverse course from the Trump era policy of Great Power competition to embrace unconditional engagement.
There is another more fundamental element to the "Engagement" school of thought that needs to be understood and that is the notion of "Compartmentalization." Biden administration officials appear to believe naively that a strategy of engagement and dialogue will get the CCP to "Compartmentalize" key issues, such as arms control, climate strategy or fentanyl production from the PRC's larger national strategic goals.
Not surprisingly for those who understand great power politics, the PRC's response to Kerry's meetings was predictable, as noted in Global Times: "The atmosphere of climate change cooperation hinges on the climate of Sino-American ties; and it is such ties that truly decide whether the cooperation expressions both sides have agreed on can be fully implemented." Or "In other words, cooperation between China and the U.S. in addressing climate change cannot exist independently as an oasis in the desert; it is closely related to the overall atmosphere of China-U.S. relations."
Americans should not forget this started in March 2021 when Blinken went to Alaska and sat there for 20 minutes as the PRC's senior diplomat Yang Jiechi publicly berated Blinken and Sullivan on American soil.
The Biden administration's dialogue with the PRC has been maladroit.
They might have no problem with their expressions of subordination to the PRC or worry about how U.S. allies and partners perceive these actions, and how their willingness to engage in demonstrations of U.S. humiliation aid the Chinese Communist Party.
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