One of the stranger aspects of Joe Biden 's presidency is his Administration’s split-mindedness on issues of even the utmost importance to our national security.

Take China , the top national security concern we face. Biden has now four times committed to defending Taiwan in the event of Chinese aggression against that island. He has thereby undone decades of calculated United States policy of strategic ambiguity on that delicate issue.

However, his hugely consequential statements have been toothless. Most absurdly, the Navy’s anemic shipbuilding plans do not reflect any serious intent to defeat the Chinese Navy in defense of Taiwan. Even members of the president’s own party in Congress have raised the alarm.

Talking tough on China while acting weak is a Biden pattern. His Cabinet members are reading off the same script. Testifying before Congress on Tuesday, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona was asked about Chinese Communist Party efforts to influence American education. He drew a blank, answering , "I don't have any information around specific efforts to try to influence [U.S. education]."

What?

Nearly every day brings a new story about Beijing’s efforts to influence, intimidate, or spy on Americans. Just one day before Cardona’s testimony, the headlines were dominated by the FBI’s arrests of suspects running an illegal Chinese "police station" in Manhattan. Christopher Wray, Biden’s own FBI director, has repeatedly warned about the unprecedented extent of Chinese espionage and influence operations against the U.S., including Chinese harassment at American universities of those professing anti-Beijing views.

Just a few months ago, Wray defended the FBI’s investigation of Chinese academics who act as spies on U.S. campuses. This problem is well known to anyone basically versed in current counterintelligence matters. But not, apparently, to the education secretary.

Unfortunately, Cardona was just getting started.

Next, he was asked about Confucius Institutes, which are controversial Chinese Communist Party-funded campus outposts that disseminate pro-Beijing views. Again, most in government know this. Again, the education secretary punted: "I don't have information on the Confucius Institutes now, but I'm sure my team may be aware of it and look into that."

That’s a remarkable admission.

Over the past decade, the status of Confucius Institutes has been debated in many countries, with ample press coverage, much of it negative. Over a decade ago, Canada’s McMaster University (which, as an alum, I can state is no right-wing outpost) threw a Confucius Institute off campus over its discrimination against people opposed to Beijing. In 2020, Sweden (yes, Sweden) shuttered all Confucius Institutes over human rights concerns, including the CCP’s harassment of dissidents abroad.

Mirroring this global trend, in the last months of the Trump administration, the State Department designated Confucius Institutes in the U.S. as foreign missions, which resulted in the closure of nearly all of the Institute's American outposts (although some remain open with a slight rebrand ). Top line: this has long been a big issue in education circles, generating debates about foreign influence and free speech.

Somehow, however, Cardona just never heard about it.

He has no excuse for his ignorance.

In March 2021, for example, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the so-called "Confucius Act," which denounced Confucius Institute as an anti-free speech arm of the Chinese Communist Party and blocked federal funding to U.S. colleges and universities which host a Confucius Institute. Cardona was already serving as education secretary when the Senate passed that act. How did he miss the memo?

Top line: Cardona is either hopelessly uninformed or willfully dishonest regarding well-documented Communist Chinese efforts to influence American education. Like the Administration he’s part of, Cardona needs to get better informed, then decide if China is our friend or foe.

The clock is ticking.

John R. Schindler served with the National Security Agency as a senior intelligence analyst and counterintelligence officer.