The Biden administration’s attempts at a China thaw have been seriously hamstrung by the fact that China has no desire for a thaw. But that hasn’t stopped the president from trying. Over the weekend, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited China, following up on Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip last month.
By Biden’s standards, the trip seemed successful. In an effort to seem accommodating of our adversaries, Yellen assured Chinese officials that the U.S. does not seek to “decouple” the two nations’ economies, but merely wants to diversify trade routes some. The Associated Press quotes her:
“They have expressed some concern that de-risking amounts to decoupling,” Yellen said. She said she tried to “assure my Chinese counterparts that this is by no means the same thing.”
“The de-risking involves attention to clearly articulated and narrowly targeted national security concerns, as well as broader concern with diversifying our supply chains, which the United States is doing in a few important sectors,” she said.
Diversifying our supply lines away from China is a goal worthy of support. It is also something China seeks to do itself, at least to some extent. But the administration is fundamentally unserious if it does not think that the ultimate goal should be to decouple from China entirely. Should a conflict over Taiwan erupt, any ties we have with our adversary will inflict serious damage domestically.
Unfortunately, Biden not only thinks cooperation with China is a policy worth continuing but also does not believe Beijing when it says it wants to bring Taiwan into the fold, by force if necessary. In an interview with Fareed Zakaria, Biden said he doesn’t “think [China] is looking for war, conflict, expansion of territory.” This is ridiculous. Numerous reports, estimates, and comments from Xi Jinping himself have offered the impression that China will engage in military conflict over Taiwan if necessary. The president of the United States should understand that. That he seemingly doesn’t is another dreadful sign.