RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-diplomacy-delusion/

President Biden recently met with China’s Xi Jinping in Indonesia. As Gordon Chang reported for the Gatestone Institute, Biden’s goals for the meeting was to “lay out” each power’s “red lines” and “critical national interests,” and determine “whether or not they conflict with one another. And if they do, how to resolve it and how to work it out.” As usual with such diplomatic theater, nothing of substance was discussed, and tired bromides about “working together” and “candid exchange of views” were exchanged.

The assumptions behind Biden’s statement of the goals themselves reveal the dangerous flaws and delusional thinking that define the fetish of “diplomatic engagement,” which for a century has been the heart of the “new world order.” Ancient common sense and the sorry record of failed diplomacy should have long ago disabused us of this feckless idealism and reliance on “parchment barriers,” negotiated written agreements that almost always lack a robust, credible threat of force to punish violators.

Many of the problems that vitiate the recent talk with China have troubled diplomatic engagement for a century. In the case of China, Chang writes, for decades “of fruitless conversations with China, American presidents regularly postpone taking needed action.” Thus, like other talks with rivals and malignant enemies like North Korea and Iran, such talks produce “horrible results,” and allow our enemies “to buy time and often run out the clock”––just as North Korea did to create nuclear weapons, and Iran is currently doing to achieve the same end.

Moreover, such talks with the world’s most consequential power inflate China’s already arrogant sense of superiority, as well as our own weakness. Such a dynamic only encourages more aggression. Finally, these agreements, which usually lack a serious enforcement mechanism for punishing violations, are what Thomas Hobbes nearly four centuries ago called a “covenant without the sword,” mere “words of no strength to secure a man at all.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/biden-bends-over-for-xi/

On Monday November 14 in Bali, Indonesia, Joe Biden met with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). According to the White House press release, “the two leaders spoke candidly about their respective priorities and intentions across a range of issues,” including “transnational challenges such as climate change, global macroeconomic stability including debt relief, health security, and global food security” and so forth.

As Charlie Spierling noted, in their opening remarks, Biden and Xi failed to mention “the coronavirus pandemic that came from China.” This lapse comes in the wake of mounting evidence that the pandemic originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. That lab was funded by Dr. Anthony Fauci to conduct dangerous gain of function research that makes viruses more lethal and transmissible.

“Everyone had to agree to the narrative” enforced by Fauci, former CDC director Dr. Redfield recently revealed. In early 2020, CDC official Dr. Nancy Messonnier even complimented China on its handling of the pandemic. On Monday, former State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus called out Biden for failing to bring it up.

“Why are we not talking about fentanyl — the chemical precursors that go from China to Mexico — the number one killer of young people? Why aren’t we talking about the origins of COVID-19?” Ortagus asked. “Are we just going to let them get away with this?”

The White House claimed Biden “raised concerns about PRC practices in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, and human rights more broadly.” But as Andrew Thornebrooke noted at The Epoch Times, “the Chinese Communist Party’s readout of the meeting did not mention any discussion of human rights.”

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/nov/12/biden-confuses-cambodia-colombia-second-time-durin/

President Biden confused Cambodia for Colombia for the second time, while meeting with Southeast Asian leaders this weekend in Phnom Penh.

Mr. Biden thanked Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday, but referred to him as the leader of South American country Colombia.

“I want to thank the prime minister for Colombia’s leadership as ASEAN chair,” Mr. Biden said.

Prior to his trip to Egypt for the COP27 climate conference, Mr. Biden referred to Cambodia as Colombia again, though he quickly corrected himself the first time.

“I’m heading down to — first of all, going to Cairo for the environmental effort, then heading over to Colombia and then — I mean Cambodia,” he told reporters before he departed.

Mr. Biden is spending the weekend meeting with Southeast Asian leaders to work on coordinating an international effort towards climate change, global inflation, the war in Ukraine and other issues.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-policy-starts-with-taiwan-biden-xi-jinping-asia-indo-pacific-tpp-ipef-ccp-taipei-strategic-decision-katherine-tai-11668362330?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

When President Biden sits down Monday with Xi Jinping ahead of the G-20 summit, he’ll face a confident and increasingly aggressive Chinese President. Who knows what Mr. Xi will conclude about the aging American president, but there’s no doubt he will probe U.S. resolve on Taiwan.

Mr. Xi comes to the meeting having been given a historic third term by the Chinese Communist Party. Meanwhile, the U.S. recently concluded what it called “productive” meetings with Taipei over trade-related issues. Mr. Xi opposes closer U.S. ties with the island democracy.

The decision to pursue these trade negotiations is welcome. But the context is that this was a sop to Taiwan for the Biden Administration’s decision to exclude it from the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework that the President announced in May. A bipartisan group of 52 senators and 200 House Members wrote separate letters urging Taiwan’s inclusion.

IPEF is a watered down version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that Barack Obama signed in 2016 but President Trump withdrew from in one of his worst strategic decisions. IPEF is intended to shore up allies in the region by creating a rules-based community based on shared objectives.

China isn’t included because it isn’t a good-faith player, and the hope is that IPEF helps shield our friends from China’s bullying. Australia suffered when China, angered by its call for an honest investigation into the origin of Covid, retaliated by restricting Australian exports such as wine, coal and lobster.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19110/biden-talks-china-prepares-war

The meeting, as crucial as everyone believes it will be, should not occur. It is long past time for America to stop talking with the Chinese regime and start imposing costs for dangerous and other unacceptable behavior.

Talking sounds as if it should work but in fact has produced horrible results, for more than three decades. In short, dialogue enables China to buy time and often run out the clock.

Biden as president has already had five phone or video calls with Xi, so by now it should be clear what his red lines are. Moreover, on any day, People’s Daily lists them.

[T]he Chinese are not real believers in the importance of dialogue; they break it off whenever they feel it is to their advantage.

[D]uring summits presidents often convey warnings, seek understanding, or propose joint action. “There is no reason to think Xi Jinping is prepared to seek understanding or would take constructive joint action,” he said. “It also is extremely unlikely that he believes or respects words of warning from the Biden administration. Given that, a side meeting on the margins of the G20 is pointless or counterproductive.” — Steve Yates, chairman of the China Policy Initiative of the America First Policy Institute, to Gatestone, November 2022.

It is time… for America to get ready for the war that is coming. That means, among other things, bolstering those defending free societies, not emboldening those intent on attacking them.

“Refusing to speak is what children do when they are angry,” the Economist states. No, refusing to speak is what leaders do when speaking for decades has created one of the most dangerous moments in history.

President Joe Biden will meet with Chinese ruler Xi Jinping on November 14 in Bali, Indonesia, on the sidelines of the G20 Summit. The talks will be, as Gideon Rachman wrote, “the first global summit of the second cold war.”

The meeting, as crucial as everyone believes it will be, should not occur. It is long past time for America to stop talking with the Chinese regime and start imposing costs for dangerous and other unacceptable behavior.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/irans-ballistic-missiles-and-the-folly-of-appeasement-biden-classical-deterrence-defense-system-uae-saudi-arabia-houthis-khamenei-nuclear-deal-11668006270?mod=opinion_lead_pos8

The news that Iran’s contribution to Russia’s war effort in Ukraine will soon include ballistic missiles as well as kamikaze drones has alerted the world to the surprising advances the Islamic Republic has made in disruptive weapons technologies. To the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, these technologies are as important as its nuclear-weapons program.

One man who understands this better than most is Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, who retired in April as commander of U.S. Central Command, the military command responsible for the Middle East. Gen. McKenzie recently warned about the impact of Iran’s advances in ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones. “Over the past five to seven years, Iranian capabilities . . . have risen to such a degree that now they possess what I would call effective ‘overmatch’ against their neighbors,” he said on Oct. 6 at Policy Exchange, a London think tank. “Overmatch,” he continued, “is a military term that means you have the ability to attack, and the defender won’t be able to mount a successful defense.”

The Iranians essentially have established a balance of power that favors offensive action by Iran. Lopsided defense economics partially explain this: America and its allies spend more money—tens or hundreds of times more—to intercept Iranian missiles and drones than it costs Iran to build and launch those weapons.

More important, when combined in a large strike package, some of Iran’s missiles and drones will inevitably break through America’s defensive shield guarding its allies and military bases in the Middle East. The IRGC combines ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones in strike packages. Each of these systems have different flight characteristics, radar signatures and homing angles. When launched simultaneously they tax the sensors of missile-defense systems. Even the most sophisticated systems operating at peak performance can’t prevent at least some of Iran’s weapons, when launched in significant quantities, from hitting their targets.

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/11/10/qatar-is-the-ally-we-need-to-counter-putins-growing-influence/

Russia’s reprehensible invasion of Ukraine has made one thing clear: The global order is changing. An axis of repressive, authoritarian world powers — all with ties to Vladimir Putin — is growing bolder and more confident, and wants to see America’s influence decline.

It’s more important than ever for the United States and all liberty-minded Western nations to have dependable, moderate allies to counter Putin and his cronies. As policymakers look abroad to cultivate relationships, they shouldn’t overlook Qatar, a rising star on the world stage.

While some folks might have trouble locating Qatar on a map, millions of eyes are about to turn to the Arab nation. Qatar will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup in November and December, having beat out the United States, Australia, Japan, and South Korea for the bid.

Hosting the World Cup will put the modern capital city of Doha in the limelight and further Qatar’s use of “sports diplomacy” to enhance cooperation, respect and tolerance among all nations. It will also elevate Qatar’s profile on the global stage, much as China used the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing as its “coming out party.”

And there’s certainly good reason to pay attention to Qatar. Although smaller than Connecticut, it has the fourth-highest gross domestic product per capita in the world, and is the second-highest exporter of liquified natural gas. It is also home to thriving financial and tourism sectors, as well as the highly influential Al Jazeera media group.

Qatar has long cooperated with the United States and NATO in maintaining security in the Persian Gulf. When the West conducts air operations against Islamic State terrorists, Qatar has often provided space for staging zones.

After the United States withdrew from Afghanistan last year, Qatar helped to evacuate more than 40,000 civilians as the Taliban swiftly took over the country. Qatar has been such a reliable partner that the Biden administration recently designated it a major non-NATO ally.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19104/close-china-consulates

Beijing reportedly has… used the station to track Chinese individuals of interest to the regime and, short-circuiting legal procedures, to persuade those Chinese to voluntarily return to China.

“[T]hey are very bold because they know they can do as they like and the State Department won’t do a damn thing.” — Maura Moynihan, author, to Gatestone, October 2022.

Prior to the recent indictments, the U.S. government often let off Chinese agents with only a warning, sometimes because of intervention by the State Department.

Law enforcement is essential, but it is hardly an answer to China’s massive campaigns against the United States.

One solution is to deny Chinese wrongdoers the safe havens they enjoy in America. China’s principal safe heavens are its embassy and consulates.

[T]he U.S. should also be closing China’s non-diplomatic presences — primarily banks and companies — to even out the situation.

China uses every point of contact to try to bring down America, and American institutions are now being overwhelmed by the onslaught. It may sound drastic to some, but the survival of freedom and democracy in America critically depends on getting the Chinese regime out of the U.S.

The best way to do that is to expel the military officers, spies, agents, provocateurs and criminals finding protection in China’s diplomatic presences in the United States. Nothing else would better communicate resolve to Beijing than getting dangerous Chinese actors off American soil.

The Biden administration should of course be shutting down the Chinatown police station, as well.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/tehrans-mullahs-throw-biden-a-lifeline-iran-middle-east-russia-ukraine-drones-weapons-oil-sanctions-china-protests-women-11667849350?mod=opinion_featst_pos1

Joe Biden is a lucky man. The heroism of the Ukrainian people saved him from a Russian victory. Now the people of Iran, led by their women, are offering him a historic opportunity to weaken Russia, reduce long-term American vulnerabilities in the Middle East, and even return a sense of caution and sobriety to Chinese foreign policy.

Like many great opportunities, it comes unexpectedly. The Middle East has been a dreary place for Team Biden. The failure to enlist the Iranians in a renewed nuclear deal, the shambolic Afghan withdrawal, the embarrassing fist bump with a price-hiking Mohammed bin Salman, Benjamin Netanyahu’s electoral victory: Nothing in the Middle East has gone Joe Biden’s way.

This string of embarrassing failures has confirmed the administration’s determination to downgrade the Middle East as a strategic priority. But the Middle East refuses to stay quiet.

Blowing off Biden administration threats dating back to last summer, Iran is selling sophisticated drones to Russia for use in the war on Ukraine. Those drones have enabled Russia’s latest assault on Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure, threatening shutdowns of Ukrainian industry and leaving civilians without light or heat as winter nears. As Robin Wright observes in the New Yorker, Russia salvaged Iran’s position in Syria in 2015 by bolstering the criminal Bashar al-Assad regime. Now Iran is returning the favor by helping Russia in its flagrantly illegal attack on Ukraine.

Enter the women of Iran, whose resistance to clerical bigotry opens the door to a new era in Iranian and even world history.

We do not know whether the Iranian protesters can win. The track record of democratic revolutions across the Middle East is anything but inspiring, and the protesters in Iran have yet to coalesce behind a single group of leaders or political program. But using all the diplomatic and economic tools at America’s disposal to help the Iranian people’s fight for freedom is both the right thing to do and the best way to advance U.S. interests at a critical time.