Xi-Putin Ties Are Further Evidence of Biden’s Weakness

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow this week displayed both the growing bonds between America’s two greatest adversaries and the Biden Administration’s utter weakness and foreign policy failures.  While the Administration has downplayed the visit’s significance, we should not be fooled: A stronger relationship between Russia and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) presents great risk to the American people.  Russia, with its thousand nuclear warheads, becoming China’s de facto vassal state is an enormous threat to America’s vital interests.

This week’s meeting is far from the beginning of stronger ties between these two nations, but their bond has greatly accelerated under Biden.  China’s oil imports have kept the Russian economy afloat despite the sanctions of America and our allies, with the PRC on track to import a record amount of oil this month after a record-setting year of imports in 2022.  And this oil is being bought at a great discount, which has serious consequences for our own economy.  Chinese refiners can now get their oil for 15% less than we can here in America, putting our domestic manufacturing at a great disadvantage.  This means China can keep pumping its products into America while our families and small businesses continue to struggle with high energy prices.  At the same time, China’s exports of advanced semiconductor chips have enabled the Russian army to keep its lethal weaponry working.  The longer the war continues, the deeper these ties will become and the more its consequences will take their toll on the American people.

Some have claimed that the U.S. support for Ukraine has “alienated” Russia and driven them toward deeper relations with the PRC, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.  U.S. aid for Ukraine has not driven our two adversaries closer together; ineffectual American leadership has.  By showing weakness in Afghanistan, saying a “minor incursion” would not be resisted, and waiting to impose sanctions on Putin until after he invaded, President Biden showed he wasn’t serious about deterring Russia.  He has not provided the kind of lethal aid the Ukrainian military needs to inflict heavy costs on the Russian invaders fast enough.  This slow drip has enabled Putin to prolong the conflict and, eventually, turn to Beijing to continue fueling his war machine through greater oil exports and tech imports.  This is the crucial context within which Russia’s relationship with China has deepened: When we fail to deter our adversaries, they grow bolder and stronger and will work together to undermine our vital interests.

Unfortunately, the Biden Administration’s response to Xi and Putin’s meeting indicates it is still not serious about building a real model of deterrence to keep America and our allies safe.  Administration officials downplayed the importance of the meeting and called the recent cooperation a “marriage of convenience” rather than a serious alignment.  Even when the Administration has tried to show strength – for instance, in drawing a “red line” over China sending lethal military weapons to Russia – the threats have seemed empty.  Recent reports indicate that China already shipped assault rifles, drone parts, body armor, and other military aid to Russia during the latter half of last year.  And evidence continues to mount that China is negotiating with Russia to supply its military with kamikaze drones.  If China crosses Biden’s ‘red line’ – indeed, if it already has – the Biden Administration will only further confirm American weakness by failing to impose costs on Beijing.

Of course, we all know how that story will likely end, because we saw it the last time Joe Biden was in the White House as Vice President.  The Obama Administration drew a “red line” over chemical weapons in Syria, only to respond with indecision and fecklessness once Assad used chemical weapons dozens of times to gas his own people.  Drawing a line and failing to enforce it had far-reaching consequences: It left a void of leadership in the Middle East which allowed Vladimir Putin to assert Russian power and aid America’s enemies in Syria.  If Biden repeats this same mistake now, we will undeniably create a new void of leadership in Europe, a void Russia and China will be all too happy to fill.

Prior to his departure from Moscow, Xi Jinping shared these words with Vladimir Putin: “Change is coming that hasn’t happened in 100 years. And we are driving this change together.”  This was not some mere statement of continued cooperation.  It was an open threat, a promise that each of these nations is committed to remaking the world according to the interests of the regimes in Beijing and Moscow, rather than the interests of America and our allies.  Continued weakness from Team Biden will make it far more difficult to keep this vision from becoming reality.

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