In what appears to be a 180-degree turn from its previously declared policy of providing “indefinite military assistance” to Ukraine, the Biden administration is apparently now looking for peace agreement within the Russo-Ukrainian war, in response to reports last week.
And the potential peacemaker Biden is for willing to relinquish leadership? It is none apart from Chinese President Xi Jinping, a documented human rights abuser who now presents himself as an angel of peace committed to ending this devastating war.
Xi’s dovish shift began in February when Beijing launched a diplomatic charm offensive that included a 12-point document titled “China’s Position on a Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis,” followed by contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian Leader Volodymyr Zelensky.
But a peaceful solution is the final thing Beijing really wants. Quite the opposite, China is encouraged to maintain this conflict going so long as possible so long as Xi continues to outsmart Biden.
China sees the US and Russia as major geopolitical adversaries whose military and economic power Beijing hopes to weaken. And the conflict in Ukraine is doing just that, implicating Moscow and Washington in what now looks like a protracted proxy war.
chinese Grand Strategy has two most important goals: to interchange the US because the dominant economic and military power by 2049 – the a hundredth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China – and to change into a “One China” nation by securing control of Taiwan.
Only the military power of the US can prevent this. But having poured billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine, the Pentagon has depleted key US weapons stockpiles to dangerous levels, lowering US combat readiness.
AND 44 page report recently published by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies noted that U.S. forces could run out of existing precision-guided weapons in lower than per week in a possible war with China.
Last November, Xi ordered his troops to organize for war. Then, as now, Xi can only gain from Washington’s deal with Ukraine while China looks aggressively at Taiwan.
Xi masterfully plays the “peacemaker” charade by portraying China as a neutral mediator. In March, Xi visited his “dear friend” Putin, touting the meeting as a “peacekeeping mission” to acquire a fee from his fellow dictator to finish the fighting in Ukraine.
Then, the next month, the Chinese strongman stepped up his game by videoconferencing with Ukrainian President Zelensky, ostensibly to advertise “peace and talks”, in response to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Behind all of the theatrics, nonetheless, China is fueling the conflict by shipping military equipment to Russia via third parties in foreign locations to avoid US economic sanctions.
In response to PoliticianChinese corporations exported assault weapons, drone parts and body armor to Russian distributors via Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Russia is also using Chinese and other foreign navigation equipment, satellite imagery and vehicle components in its war against Ukraine.
But China’s aid to Russia is actually – if not perverse – intended to harm it. Beijing is delighted to see Moscow’s military equipment being worn out by war and weakened by US and European sanctions.
Despite describing themselves as “strategic partners”, Russia and China will not be true allies. While they share a typical anti-American agenda, the 2 compete for influence in Eurasia, where China hopes to achieve a bonus over key trading markets with its massive Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.
China and Russia even have a history on the battlefield, most notably a series of border disputes that led them to this on the verge of a nuclear confrontation within the late Nineteen Sixties. Indeed, Russian military strategists see China as Russia’s second biggest security threat after the US and NATO.
The side profit China is reaping from the protracted war in Ukraine is the oil it buys from Russia deep discounts. Russia bypassed Western means stifle its oil revenues by diverting European oil exports to China, India and Turkey, making them available at discounted prices.
There is a clever Chinese allegory that captures the essence of her excited about the war in Ukraine: “As two tigers fight fiercely within the valley, the sage monkey sits on top of the mountain, looks down and waits to see the way it ends.”
The 2 tigers are Russia and the US. China is a wrinkled monkey patiently waiting for Moscow and Washington to weaken their fighting power in Ukraine.
Beset by incompetence and wishful pondering, Biden’s foreign policy has created a recent global chaos that has emboldened American enemies to act against our greatest interests.
The Biden team, out of touch with reality, is about to be outmaneuvered again by certainly one of America’s top adversaries. And Biden has only himself guilty for Putin and Xi’s constant deception.
Rebekah Koffler is president of Doctrine & Strategy Consulting, former DIA intelligence officer, and writer of Putin’s Playbook: Russia’s Secret Plan to Defeat America. Twitter: @Rebekah0132