President Biden recently spoke with China’s President Xi Jingping to discuss Beijing’s position on the Ukraine crisis. There are other topics, apparently not emphasized by the White House, that should have been included in the discussion.
Beijing’s meteoric rise to the status of an economic and military superpower has led many to raise concerns about its aggressive nature in commercial, diplomatic, and military matters, and the worldwide detrimental impact of them.
U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) outlined those concerns:
“China’s economy has grown sevenfold in the last two decades. China already has a million members in terms of active duty soldiers.
“China also has the largest Navy in the world. That’s right, it’s now larger than ours. And the Chinese military is not stopping.
“China plans to build more than 100 new ships in the next eight years. In those same eight years, China is also building about 300 missile silos and plans to have 1,000 nuclear missiles.
“Several times this year China has tested hypersonic weapons capable of use around the world.
“At the same time the world has witnessed increasing Chinese aggression.
“China’s goal is unmistakable. It truly wants to become the world’s one dominant power.
“Since day one, the Biden administration has been caught flatfooted. As president, Joe Biden has been soft on China.
“And this is no surprise given the fact that Joe Biden has been soft on China for 50 years.
“When he was vice president, he said, quote, ‘a rising China is a positive development.’ He said, ‘not only for China, but for America and the world at large.’
“During his run for president, candidate Joe Biden said China was not a threat to the United States.
“During his announcement speech, when he was announcing that he was going to be a candidate for president, he said ‘they’re not bad folks. They’re not competition for us.’
“Joe Biden should tell that to the working families in factory towns that have been put out of business by communist China.
“He should tell that to the families who lost loved ones to fentanyl and other opioids made in China.
“He should tell that to the Uyghurs and ethnic minorities persecuted and used as slave labor by the Chinese Communist Party.
“The leaders on both sides of the aisle here have been shocked by those comments by then-candidate for president Joe Biden.
“Many Democrats recognize the danger posed by communist China. Regrettably, our president Joe Biden is not one of them.
“On issue after issue the Biden administration’s policies are only making China stronger, and at the same time that makes America weaker. I want to just mention a few.
“President Biden’s first budget proposed to basically super-size the government of the United States. Huge budget increases in every government agency you can think of except for two.
“The two were defense and homeland security.
“His political appointees at the Pentagon seem more focused on climate change and dissident ideologies and vaccine mandates than on security threats to our nation.
“While China’s military is growing, ours is going broke and ours is going woke. That’s the difference fundamentally today.
“Joe Biden has stopped America’s policy of helping developing countries use fossil fuels to eliminate poverty and grow their economies.
“Who are these other countries turning to for help now? Well, they’re turning to communist China.
“Joe Biden seems to be doing everything he can to shut down coal production here in America.
“Wyoming is proud to be America’s leading coal producer, and we have for 35 years straight.
“Coal is the most affordable and reliable energy source known to man. Yet, Joe Biden is determined to drive down coal production and drive energy jobs overseas.
“China is not making this same mistake. China is acting in its own self-interest. China is producing and using more coal than ever before.
“China is also funding the construction of coal-fired power plants as part of their belt and road initiative.
“The Biden administration and the Democrats have also put a big Christmas present to China in their reckless tax-and-spending spree because the bill includes trillions of dollars in new taxes on American businesses.
“As a result, some of our tax rates are going to be higher than those in China. It’s going to make it cheaper to do business overseas. And that is exactly what many companies will do.
“According to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, the taxes in this bill that the Senate is trying to push on the Democrat side of the aisle and the Republicans are trying to stop, the taxes in the bill will eliminate 125,000 American jobs.
“Democrat giveaways for electric vehicles will also send additional money directly to China.
“Electric vehicles use lithium batteries, the critical mineral necessary for those batteries rely on child labor in cobalt mines in the Democrat Republic of the Congo and slave labor in China.
“At the same time, Democrat spending bill would virtually end mining on federal lands here at home. Instead of getting the minerals we need from home in Wyoming, we’re going to get them from China.
“More than a million Muslims in western parts of China have been put into slave labor camps. In many cases those people are forced to make solar panels.
“Last week, Senator Rubio offered an amendment to the defense bill to ban imports from Chinese companies using slave labor.
“This is the same legislation that this Senate passed unanimously in July.
“Yet, now Democrats are kowtowing to an administration weak on China and are blocking Senator Rubio’s proposal.
“Why have the House Democrats failed to move forward on this critical issue?
“According to The Washington Post, it is because the Biden administration asked them to. The Washington Post reports, ‘while the administration supports the legislation in public, they are asking Democrats to essentially water it down in private.’
“On issue after issue, Democrat policies are only making America weaker and making China
stronger.
“It’s no wonder that only a quarter of Americans approve of how President Biden is handling China.
“On Monday, the president announced the United States will boycott next year’s Olympics in Beijing.
“This is a good first step, but it’s not enough. Symbolism is not enough.
“It’s time for Democrats to wake up to this threat from communist China before it is way too late.”