Joe Biden’s rhetorical perplexion has been written about at length over his many decades in the political sphere. For the most part, his slip-ups are comedic or incoherent. But, on occasion, he says something worth praising. In a rare bout of unscripted remarks Tuesday, Biden referred to Xi Jinping as a “dictator” while reiterating that the Chinese spy balloons discovered in recent months were nothing more than embarrassing accidents. His full remarks were as follows:
The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two boxcars full of spy equipment in it is he didn’t know it was there. No, I’m serious. That’s what’s a great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn’t know what happened.
His sort-of criticism of the Chinese tyrant should be cheered and encouraged. Xi Jinping is a dictator; there is no questioning that, and as the president of the United States, Biden should make that clear, no matter the reaction from Chinese officials. But it matters little if he refuses to put U.S. policy behind his words, which he has failed to do consistently. As Mike Coté recently wrote, the Biden administration’s insistence that there will be a thaw in the Chinese–American relationship is foolish. Sending the Secretary of State to engage in talks only to receive an audience with Xi of less than an hour is a diplomatic embarrassment. The editors summarized the meeting nicely:
Reducing the possibility that a spontaneous crisis turns into conflict is a worthwhile goal. But U.S. weakness, rewarding the CCP’s strategy of escalation to force engagement, carries its own risks that are likelier to be more significant over the long run.
The Biden administration will have to draw a line somewhere. Continuing on as it has, with the naive assumption that China is playing by our rules, will only lead to American defeat in the nascent hegemonic struggle in which we find ourselves. Biden occasionally barking about Xi’s dictatorial actions and then cowering when China bites is a doomed strategy.