[American Greatness] British Prime Minister Harold Wilson said that a week is a long time in politics. Last week revealed Wilson’s prescience once again. Just when the country had seemingly recovered from the unctuous and foolish visit to China by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s visit demonstrates just how much worse things can get.Yellen’s repeated bowing to a subordinate of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Vice Premier He Lifeng, was a singular combination of truly bizarre behavior, a masterclass of what not to do, and symbolic of how unserious the Biden Administration is in confronting the threat from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Yellen went out of her way to allay China’s fears regarding any U.S. effort to "decouple" from China, which seems to have been the point of the trip. Yellen’s visit only could have been worse if she had placed the lampshade on her head and spilled her drink on Xi.
By contrast, in the same week Xi was warning his Eastern Theater Command to prepare for war. Far from a concern about "decoupling," Xi warned that the world had entered a new period of turmoil and change, and China’s security had become more unstable and uncertain. Xi charged the military with "deepening war and combat planning to increase our chances of actual victory in actual combat." The disaster of Yellen’s visit and the bellicose statements by Xi permit us to recognize that while China is preparing for war, the Biden Administration is obsessed with returning to the policy of engagement with the PRC—the very same policy that has put America at risk.
This week, the annual NATO summit in Vilnius discussed important matters relevant to the alliance and the war in Ukraine. But before the leaders met it is evident that there is a major division in the alliance, first, over the Biden administration’s determination to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine. Second, over whether and when Ukraine might be brought into NATO. Third, there is a divide over the deeper issue considered by the alliance whether to bring pressure to bear to end the attritional war or continue it until Ukraine’s nebulous war aims are achieved or Russia is denied victory. Here the alliance is split with the Germans advocating for the war’s termination and the Biden administration supporting its continuation, exemplified with Biden’s approval of sending cluster munitions to Ukraine.