President Joe Biden is continuing his pursuit a thaw with China, raising the ire of Republicans who have adopted a tough stance on the increasingly-authoritarian state.
Secretary of state Antony Blinken is traveling to China this weekend, building on a series of diplomatic measures the administration has deployed to appease Beijing. Punitive economic measures against China have been delayed, and the communist country’s surveillance efforts targeted at the U.S. have been played down, NBC reports. Blinken’s trip was originally called off after a Chinese surveillance balloon floated across the country before being shot down by a U.S. fighter jet in February.
“Instead of condemning the blatantly aggressive behaviors of the Chinese Communist Party, Secretary Blinken announced that he will legitimize the CCP’s continued subversion of our sovereignty with an upcoming official visit,” said Representative Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.), chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, urging Blinken and Co. to “immediately cease their weak and desperate pursuit of a ‘thaw.’”
In addition to the balloon, Stefanik pointed to several CCP acts of escalation, including Chinese purchases of land near U.S. military installations and the news that Cuba has allowed China to establish an electronic eavesdropping base on the island. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby initially claimed the report about a Cuban base was not accurate, but an unnamed official confirmed that the administration knew about it for some time.
According to the New York Times, House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Michael McCaul (R., Texas) has asked for Blinken to produce competitive-actions calendars, which would show the list of retaliatory actions the administration has considered against China and when they were applied. McCaul is attempting to show to the public that the administration is intentionally slow-walking actions against China. The chairman threatened a subpoena if the documents were not produced by Friday evening.
Presidential candidate and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley joined congressional Republicans in criticizing Biden’s approach to China. She wrote in a Washington Post op-ed on Friday that “it’s time to hold our enemy accountable. Every day we don’t puts America in greater danger.” She reiterated adverse actions China is taking against the U.S. and its allies and also highlighted Beijing’s growing belligerence toward Taiwan.
“Xi Jinping is dead-serious about winning a war. America should be just as serious and modernize our military. It’s the only way to keep the peace,” argued Haley.
The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party has also raised the alarm that the U.S. isn’t acting fast enough.
“We will continue operating in a bipartisan way to send a message that we are committed to deterrence in the Taiwan Strait and that we won’t turn a blind eye as the CCP commits genocide, ‘the crime above all crimes,’ against the Uyghur people,” said the committee’s chairman, Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.), and ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D., Ill.) in a statement.
In addition to further isolating China via sanctions for its human-rights abuses in Xinjiang, the committee members suggested concrete actions to deter the country from invading Taiwan. They urged that delayed shipments of arms and other military equipment to Taiwan be sped up. Joint military training with the U.S. also ought to be increased, the lawmakers said.