President Biden(‘s handlers) weakness, fecklessness and incompetence has implications far beyond Afghanistan and the southern border. Take, for example, the Taiwan Strait. Excerpt:
One of the worst aspects of Biden’s handlers’ thoroughly preventable disaster in Afghanistan is the message that it has sent to the world. Among those who have received that message loud and clear is Communist China. Focus Taiwan reported Sunday that “a total of 19 Chinese military aircraft, including fighter jets, flew into Taiwan’s southwestern air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Sunday, the fourth time this has taken place in September, according to the Ministry of National Defense. The aircraft involved were 10 J-16 multi-role fighters, four H-6 bombers, four SU-30 fighters, and one Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, according to a report released by the ministry.”
It’s hard not to see China’s new belligerence toward Taiwan as yet another core element of the Biden legacy: When America projects weakness to the world, malign actors take advantage. Nor is this even anything new; the ChiComs began acting aggressively toward Taiwan just days after Old Joe took office. The Daily Wire reported that “this is not the first time during the Biden administration China has sent a multitude of jets into Taiwan’s air defense zone; on January 24, 15 aircraft were spotted; on 12 April, Taiwan reported 25 jets.”
On June 15, after the G7 issued a statement calling for “peaceful resolution” of issues between Communist China and Taiwan, the People’s Republic made it clear that it understood the significance of this less-than-ringing defense of the freedom of the Republic of China, sending a record 28 aircraft into Taiwan’s ADIZ.
None of this should come as any surprise; the Communist Chinese have known what Old Joe is made of for quite some time. The Daily Wire noted that back in 2001, then-Senator Joe took to the Washington Post to declare that “as a matter of diplomacy, there is a huge difference between reserving the right to use force and obligating ourselves, a priori, to come to the defense of Taiwan. The president should not cede to Taiwan, much less to China, the ability automatically to draw us into a war across the Taiwan Strait.”
Frankly, if the PRC doesn’t take advantage of the Biden(‘s handlers) Administration’s weakness to do something about Taiwan – well, I won’t be shocked, but I’ll be a little surprised. Taiwan may be a bridge too far, though. I’m skeptical of China’s ability to project power, even across the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese Navy (actually oddly called “the People’s Liberation Army Navy”) is basically a frigate navy, with one old Cold-War era surplus Russian carrier and a new “super” carrier in the building.
Still – the PRC may surprise us. But Taiwan may have a trick or two up their sleeves as well.
Taiwan has been preparing for an eventual confrontation for a couple of generations now. Also, I wouldn’t rule out Japan getting involved, as they are surely savvy enough to know they’d be next on the chopping block if China got increasingly frisky about building some kind of new Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
The main point of all this speculation is this: Our western Pacific allies don’t trust us any more. Frankly, they shouldn’t. I wouldn’t be a plugged nickel on the Biden(‘s handlers) Administration having their backs if anything went sideways.
