Biden’s complicated relationship with China poses a danger to us all

Thanks to House investigators, it has become increasingly clear: President Biden knew about and was likely involved in Hunter Biden’s dealings with companies tied to the Chinese Communist Party. And he almost certainly lied about it.

That evidence is coming from credible IRS whistleblowers who have testified to that effect, as well as bank records, emails, audio tapes and eyewitnesses that confirm Biden’s complicity.

It is also evident from the incessant kowtowing by the Biden White House to China. If our president has taken money from Chinese companies, officials in Beijing know all about it and undoubtedly relish the leverage that knowledge gives them over an unpopular U.S. president. That vulnerability must terrify Biden and is the only possible reason imaginable that this administration continues to prostrate itself before Chinese President Xi Jinping.

One after another, senior White House officials have trotted over to Beijing, enduring humiliation at the hands of Xi’s despotic government; recently the White House confirmed that Biden himself is eager to join the queue. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and now climate envoy John Kerry have made the journey, with little to show for their efforts but a series of self-inflicted embarrassments.

Imagine: The American secretary of State traveled to Beijing to beg the Chinese to reopen vital lines of communication between our two countries’ militaries and was rebuffed. Embarrassingly, Blinken was kept on tenterhooks, not certain he would even meet with Xi, who finally agreed to spend 30 minutes with him but afterward told a Chinese news outlet the meeting was a mere “courtesy.”

Yellen started her trip by bowing several times to a bemused Chinese official, looking more like a bobblehead doll than a Treasury secretary. Her visit was also for naught. She told CBS’s “Face the Nation,” “It’s important to establish person-to-person relationships and to open ongoing channels of communication.” Having set that basement-level bar, she described her trip as “successful.”

Just days before her trip, China imposed draconian curbs on exports of gallium and germanium compounds, vital chip-making ingredients, in effect warning Biden it can destroy his efforts to rejuvenate U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. Xi didn’t even dignify Yellen’s trip with a photo-op.   

Most recently, our climate czar Kerry ventured to China, hoping against hope that the world’s most aggressive builder of coal-fired power plants would repent and buy into Biden’s climate zealotry. No dice. After four days of meetings that produced zero headway, Kerry said the two sides agreed to “meet intensively” going forward.

Here’s a radical thought: Wouldn’t an uncompromised White House make China come to us?

After all, it is China whose economy is stumbling, whose record-high youth unemployment is destabilizing, whose demographics are disastrous for long-term growth, whose debts are through the roof, exports are collapsing and, most important, that is losing foreign companies in droves.

China is faltering in part because its power-mad leader has assumed total control of the country and of economic policy. Xi has issued erratic and often contradictory diktats that have unsettled his citizens. Sentiment and optimism are low, foiling the government’s ambitions of inspiring a consumer-driven economy after decades of dependence on massive debt-fueled infrastructure and real estate investment.

Xi, in attacking successful tech entrepreneurs and businesses, declaring excess wealth injurious to the state, “disappearing” executives and inserting more party control into every enterprise, has shaken the country’s confidence and discouraged foreign investment. It is also possible that China’s misdeeds are taking a toll; the country’s clampdown on unpleasant publicity is not absolute.   

After all, it is China that appears to have loosed COVID-19 upon an unsuspecting world, lied about the disease, and withheld information about the origins of the pandemic and other vital facts that might have prevented millions of deaths. China has also been a stalwart supporter of Russia despite its illegal invasion of Ukraine, violates countless international treaties and customs, stole trillions in intellectual capital and hacked into our government’s “secure” websites. Most recently, China hacked into State Department emails, including those of our ambassador to Beijing — the ultimate insult.

Xi has also sent spy balloons hovering over U.S. military installations, lied about these incursions and is evidently ramping up its military presence in Cuba, just off our shores. His government has also built up fortifications in the South China Sea, after promising former President Obama he would not, and his military in recent months has harassed and endangered our planes and ships.

If all those charges were not enough, surely the Biden administration must deplore China’s ongoing repudiation of their sacred climate agenda. Xi has made it clear he disdains Biden’s Green New World, though he may delight in the pell-mell push for electric everything that will make the U.S. even more dependent on China.

In contrast to former President Trump, Biden has taken a soft-ish line on China, only mildly objecting to Beijing’s ongoing provocations and oh-so-gently protecting U.S. interests. He has kept in place most of the former president’s tariffs, knowing Americans supported Trump’s attempts to level the trade playing field.

But, early last year his Justice Department canceled Trump’s China Initiative, a program designed to counter Beijing-sponsored theft of U.S. research and technology. The Biden White House nixed the effort despite FBI Director Christopher Wray admitting that his bureau opens a new China-related case every 12 hours and that “There is just no country that presents a broader threat to our ideas, our innovation and our economic security than China.”

Biden tiptoes a careful and dangerous line, needing to appear tough on China because Americans consider Beijing a serious threat. At the same time, Biden appears fearful of offending officials who could conceivably destroy his presidency. That Biden may be compromised is dangerous not only for the president, but also for the United States.

Liz Peek is a former partner of major bracket Wall Street firm Wertheim & Company. Follow her on Twitter @lizpeek.