Hardly a week goes by without President Biden and his team demonstrating weakness on national security, and this one was no exception. Both special climate envoy John Kerry and national security advisor Jake Sullivan produced significant unforced errors this week with both France and China, respectively, signaling yet again that when it comes to representing us on the world stage, Biden and his team are simply not performing to the standards Americans expect and deserve.
Unfortunately, over the past nine months Kerry has committed a number of high-profile gaffes that have diminished his effectiveness and even led to calls for his resignation from a number of Republicans. These include reports that, either as secretary of state for President Obama or when out of office, Kerry disclosed sensitive intelligence about hundreds of Israeli air strikes on Iranian interests in Syria to Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. In addition, Kerry traveled to China in April for three days of meetings with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials on the country’s efforts on climate change, shortly after China’s top diplomat lectured Biden’s national security team on human rights and race relations in a high-profile dialogue in Anchorage, Alaska. In his role as climate czar, Kerry was the first Biden administration official to visit the country, and amazingly failed to raise any of the central issues in our relationship, including China’s unleashing a pandemic on the world, that by then had led to over half a million deaths in the U.S. alone.
That brings us to Kerry’s latest, where last week he gave an interview to French television in advance of climate meetings in which he claimed that Biden was “not aware” that a recent U.S. submarine deal with Australia had angered French officials, leading them to recall their ambassador to the U.S. for the first time ever. Kerry’s disclosure, which the White House later disputed, either represents another instance of Biden asleep at the switch on national security issues, or Kerry dissembling in a ham-handed attempt to smooth over relations with an important ally. Whichever it is, the jet-setting Kerry was way off course in his role as climate czar, and the incident delivered yet another headache for Biden’s actual national security leaders, secretary of state Antony Blinken and Sullivan.
Sullivan himself scored the second of Team Biden’s own-goals on national security this week, this time on China. Sullivan met in Zurich Wednesday with the CCP’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi, and the two discussed a range of bilateral issues. To his credit, Sullivan “raised a number of areas where we have concern with the PRC’s actions, including actions related to human rights, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, the South China Sea, and Taiwan,” according to the White House’s official readout of the meeting.
In another good sign, Yang apparently skipped reprising his lecture from six months ago in Alaska on the U.S.'s “deep-seated…challenges” on human rights and racism. For the record, Sullivan at that time meekly acknowledged the Chinese communist’s criticism, saying only, “[A] confident country is able to look hard at its own shortcomings and constantly seek to improve.”
Despite the improved tone of the Zurich meeting, Sullivan made two key mistakes there. First, he apparently failed to address the true key issue in our relationship, namely, the Chinese Communist Party’s actions in developing and spreading the virus that has killed over 713,000 Americans to date, and the unprecedented and outrageous steps that Chinese officials have taken to cover it up. Also nothing on Biden’s plans to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for those actions, such as allowing U.S. families to sue the Chinese government for damages from the virus, and preventing China from hosting next year’s Winter Olympics, two steps that House Republicans recommended months ago. It is probably no surprise Sullivan punted on challenging China on the virus origins, since Biden himself did the same for four months before giving into public and media pressure and ordering a review in June that in turn drew no conclusions on that central question.
In a second error in his meeting with Yang, Sullivan failed to secure a commitment for Xi and Biden to meet in person this year, as the Chinese would only commit to a “virtual summit” for the two leaders. To date Biden has only had two phone calls with his Chinese counterpart, whereas President Trump in his first year in office held two extensive in-person visits with Xi, including a full “State-plus” visit to Beijing in November 2017. It’s pretty clear where Biden stands on Xi’s list compared to his predecessor.
No question about it – Biden’s national security team last week continued to disappoint, this time involving relations with two of the most important countries in our orbit, one ally and one adversary. Less than nine months in office, it’s unfortunately par for the course – one more week of weakness for Biden, and one more week resembling Jimmy Carter on matters of national security.
John Ullyot was Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and NSC Spokesman from 2019-2021.