This week brought a new warning from the Chinese Communist Party that should raise alarms with the Biden administration that has mostly treated the genocidal regime with kid gloves — as demonstrated by the president's decision to allow a CCP spy balloon to drift across the continental U.S. for days.
In a press conference, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang — who previously served as China's ambassador to the United States — threatened the U.S. after the White House framed its desired interactions with China as not being a "conflict" but "strategic competition" instead.
The Biden administration's "competition," Qin said, "is all-round containment and suppression, a zero-sum game." The foreign minister further claimed the United States "wants China not to respond in words or action when slandered or attacked," an expectation Qin said "is just impossible."
It's nothing new for China to view more-than-deserved penalties for its genocidal, totalitarian evil as some kind of affront — but it's notable that China is again ratcheting up its threats against the U.S. at a time where President Biden and his administration has largely failed to portray strength in its dealings with China.
"If the U.S. side does not put on the brakes and continues down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can stop the derailment and rollover into confrontation and conflict," the CCP's number-two diplomat said, adding to China's threat.
Qin invoked Biden's order to shoot down the CCP's spy balloon, calling it a violation of "the spirit of international law" (note: it was China that violated that spirit and America's sovereignty), and also said the US bears undeniable "responsibility for the creation of the Taiwan issue."
That is, China is telling Biden that if he doesn't stop what the U.S. calls "strategic competition," it is "impossible" for China not to respond with "action" that will unavoidably lead to "confrontation and conflict."
This all comes as President Biden and his administration have had an, at best, faltering relationship with China over the past two years and change. Most recently, it was Biden's decision to allow the CCP's spy balloon to drift across basically the entire continental U.S. before he finally issued a shoot-down order under intense pressure and criticism.
Going back a ways, Biden tried to cozy up with China to get Beijing to talk Putin out of invading Ukraine. That effort blew up in Biden's face — and even the Pentagon admitted the move was a mistake — as China took whatever intelligence Biden shared with them and handed it straight to Moscow, deepening ties between the two regimes.
Then, of course, there's Biden's repeated failure to accurately explain what the United States' response would be to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. It's also worth noting the Biden administration has failed to hold China responsible for its role in the emergence and spread of COVID-19 or for its continued coverup of what happened in Wuhan.
Those specific instances, combined with Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and failure to project enough strength to keep Putin out of Ukraine, create an image of weakness — especially in the face of China's aggression. That gives the CCP some wiggle room to issue threats like these and continue trying to position itself as the rising global superpower.
But China is a totalitarian, genocidal, rights-depriving regime. The CCP deserves to be called out, ostracized, and punished for its treatment of the Uyghurs, the stranglehold it has on its citizens' lives, the foreign espionage it conducts to steal intellectual property and research from other nations, and a laundry list of other bad actions.
So, will Biden respond with strength? Or will he seek to use his preferred "diplomacy" to fumble around in more failed attempts to diffuse CCP blustering and unconscionable actions? Time will tell, but if the past is indeed prologue, Biden is not set up for success going forward.