Posted on 01/17/2024 7:51:54 AM PST by MtnClimber
On Saturday morning, Biden shuffled into a media scrum on the South Lawn to offer a few remarks before heading to Camp David for a weekend vacation after his Carribean vacation.
8,000 miles away voters in the Republic of China, also known as Taiwan, had just elected President ‘William’ Lai who had promised to preserve the nation’s independence from its greedy Communist superpower neighbor.
“Mr. President, do you have a reaction to the Taiwan election?” a reporter asked.
“We do not support independence,” Biden mumbled.
He did not congratulate Taiwan’s new president-elect because that would offend China.
In December, Chinese Communist dictator Xi Jinping told Biden at a San Francisco summit that the ChiComs were preparing to take Taiwan, but did not have an exact timetable yet. During the summit, China demanded that Biden issue a statement in favor of “peaceful reunification” and against the continuation of Taiwanese independence from the Communist dictatorship.
Biden has given Xi half of what he wanted. The other half is being decided behind the scenes.
Taiwan is waiting on a backlog of $19 billion in weapons from sales mostly made during the Trump administration. Those weapons can make the difference between a Chinese invasion and peace. But the Biden administration has continued delaying the delivery of those weapons.
In 2019, the Trump administration approved a $2.2 billion sale of M1A2 tanks. Those tanks were supposed to have been delivered in 2022, but the Biden administration instead diverted them to Ukraine. Unlike Taiwan, Ukraine wasn’t paying for the tanks, but went to the front of the line anyway because the Biden administration saw it as a bigger priority than taking on China.
After being denied the right to buy F-22 and F-35 jets, Taiwan was allowed to buy $8 billion worth of F-16 jets. Those were supposed to be delivered in 2023, they’ve since slipped to 2024. The jets, inadequate as they are, are crucial at a time when Communist China has been conducting non-stop penetrations into the Republic of China’s airspace to wear down its aircraft.
A $2 billion deal for 400 Harpoon anti ship missiles, some of the most crucial defensive weapons the Republic of China needs, was signed in 2020 with delivery scheduled for 2029.
The weapons orders were supposed to deter a Chinese Communist invasion, but the delays have instead made it more likely. Xi’s warning to Biden reflects the window before weapons deliveries are likely to occur and the outcome of the upcoming American presidential election.
Beijing is most likely to strike when Taiwan and America are at their most vulnerable.
Meanwhile the People’s Republic of China has been stirring up trouble from Ukraine to Gaza to the Red Sea in coordination with partners like Russia and Iran. Beijing is betting that the more demand there is for American weapons and forces around the world, the less likely we will be able to either supply the Taiwanese Republic of China or do anything to defend it from the PRC.
While Biden implicitly condemned the new president, the administration sent an unofficial delegation of two retired officials, Stephen Hadley, Bush’s NSA advisor, and James Steinberg, a former Deputy Secretary of State, to congratulate Taiwan’s new president and warn him to maintain the status quo and avoid any declarations of independence that might annoy Xi.
“The US would stand with its friend,” Hadley told Taiwan’s new leaders. It just won’t open an embassy, receive a delegation or send an official delegation to its “friend”.
Ever since the Nixon administration, the United States accepted China’s position on Taiwan.
Communist China claims that there will be peace as long as everyone goes along with its claim to Taiwan. When America adopted the “One China” position, we began pretending that a longtime ally with its own government, elections and military doesn’t exist anymore even while a good deal of our computer industry depends on its products and we aid in its defense.
American administrations have accepted the myth that the situation will remain peaceful unless Taiwan’s leaders upset China by asserting their political existence and independence. Expelled from the UN, Taiwan has also lost the vast majority of its allies and international recognition.
Rather than reversing the trend, the Biden administration focuses on an impossible status quo.
Xi made it clear to Biden during their meeting in San Francisco that the ChiCom regime intends to take Taiwan. The only question is when it will do it and how it intends to make it happen. Xi, like other Communist China dictators, claimed that Taiwan’s diplomatic moves and outside support would be the trigger for any invasion. This is the same false claim that the Communist Chinese regime has been spreading for generations in order to isolate Taiwan, weaken its nationalistic movements and leave it ripe for either an invasion or a takeover.
The ChiCims would prefer to avoid a military confrontation and will tell any lie to do it.
Beijing promised that Hong Kong would retain its democratic elections and its civil rights. Then it began tightening the noose and when protests broke out in response, it violated all of its promises and ended the lie of “One Country, Two Systems” that had been at the center of its sales pitch for reunification not only for Hong Kong, but also Taiwan.
There is no such thing as “One Country, Two Systems”. One China means Communism.
Or as Xi recently put it in his message to the dictatorship’s security apparatus, to “uphold the absolute leadership” of the Communist Party. Xi would like to extend that “absolute leadership” and his own personal empire to the Republic of China as he already extended it to Hong Kong.
The plot is the same in Hong Kong, Taiwan or America. In all three places Beijing has used its commercial power to corrupt elites and oligarchs, to make them dependent on it for their wealth and to condition them to promote kowtowing to the Communist Party over their own interests.
Mass migration from China has sped along the corruption of Taiwan as well as western nations.
The Communist regime has spent generations on its program to subvert not only Taiwan, but the United States of America. Many of the pro-Hamas rioters rampaging around New York City are actually run out of China. And China’s tentacles have extended into America’s political establishment entangling everyone from Joe Biden’s son to George W. Bush’s brother.
In the Red Sea, vessels that want to avoid Iranian-backed Houthi attacks now flag themselves as “All Chinese”. China expects its future grain exports from Ukraine to come through Russia. And it intends to take over Taiwan in one way or another. How soon it will act is up to Biden.
Biden has shown weakness and he has betrayed American allies while failing to stand up to our enemies. That’s why our foes are emboldened and our allies are fighting for their lives.
And after every disaster, Biden continues doubling down on the same disastrous policies.
This isn’t incompetence: it’s treason.
Daniel Greenfield ping
In the Red Sea, vessels that want to avoid Iranian-backed Houthi attacks now flag themselves as “All Chinese”. China expects its future grain exports from Ukraine to come through Russia. And it intends to take over Taiwan in one way or another. How soon it will act is up to Biden.
Biden has shown weakness and he has betrayed American allies while failing to stand up to our enemies. That’s why our foes are emboldened and our allies are fighting for their lives.
And after every disaster, Biden continues doubling down on the same disastrous policies.
This isn’t incompetence: it’s treason.
Ping out to the Daniel Greenfield Ping! List.
As always, please FReepmail me if you want on or off the esteemed Daniel Greenfield ping list.
Daniel Greenfield's website: The Sultan Knish blog
“Biden’s Taiwan Betrayal - It’s not incompetence; it’s treason.”
What would you expect from Beijing Benedict Osama bin Biden?
"We do not support independence" (for Taiwan) is not treason by any definition. In fact, calling it treason is nothing more than globalist bullsh!t. You can't be guilty of treason in matters involving places or countries that aren't the United States.
And Biden's statement actually reflects what has been the offical policy of the U.S. government towards China and Taiwan dating back at least six decades.
Never a disappointment...but what a mess. Taiwan pays for weapons that Ukraine gets! Only by DC logic, does that make any sense?
Thanks!
Taiwan almost certainly has nuclear weapons.
Vietnamese and Afghans know much about American governmental perfidy.
I spent some time doing a lot of reading about the period 1945-1949 and then into the 50’s.
Japanese troops were in China. Chiang Kai Shek was the leader of China at that time and fought them. Japan had some of the major cities along the coast and the local police force continued to do their jobs about local crime.
Make no mistake here. Chiang was as corrupt as they come. Worse than whatever average you imagine. The US shipped aid to him and he skimmed, and bought gold and stored it in the national treasury.
Japan was defeated. Chiang was triumphant. But during the war he was also fighting Mao Zedong, who had the gall to actually have the support of the Chinese people. Communist or not, he had their support — and generally informed the Soviets they were not welcome and to be gone.
As Japan departed, Chiang came into the cities and executed all of the police leadership who had been keeping the lights on — for Japanese collaboration. Then just 4 yrs after triumph vs Japan, he managed to get kicked out of his own country — by Mao Zedong.
He and whatever troops (and family) he could gather fled for Taiwan. Taiwan had a Japanese culture. China had ceded Taiwan to Japan about 50 years before. They were never Chinese.
Oh, and btw, he also took the Chinese nation’s Treasury of gold with him.
Chiang arrived and he and his troops massacred the local leadership and populace in general. They took ownership of prime land and control of the government. They arranged for their children to maintain that control of the government for another 40-50 years. His wife had been raised in the US. He sent her, and big chunks of gold, to the US to buy some land for an estate and start bribing Congress. The bribes were effective. The US govt refused to recognize that Mao actually controlled China and called Chiang and his tiny population on Taiwan “Nationalist China”. It was that absurd.
So do not think Taiwan is some entity being abused and unjustly coveted. Chiang decided Taiwan was Chinese and eventually the world recognized mainland China as actually China.
Also consider what happens if China bombs and destroys the semiconductor industry on Taiwan and doesn’t bother to invade. Just bomb it and destroy it and nothing else. No, don’t fall for propaganda and think mainland China can’t have their own semiconductor foundries. They already do. But if Taiwan has none, very soon no one would care about them. They would eventually ask to join with the mainland.
I believe that all major countries and the EU should be broken up.
The US needs to split off places like LA, NYC, SF, Chicago, Denver, Atlanta and other leftish strongholds into independent, demilitarized city states.
Well you’re right its not treason but it is betrayal. The US has pretty much supported Taiwanese independence for my lifetime.
But before we get into the handwringing lets reflect on the fact that China can’t even win a border skirmish with India. Taking Taiwan back by force is not going to be a cakewalk.
BTTT
Back in the day, when the US dumped Formosa/ROC for the PRC, we gave up recognition of them as a nation.
It’s always been a screwy set up.
Saying we don’t seek an “independent Taiwan (ROC)” is not a change of policy. It is a restatement of the policy that has been in place since Nixon/Ford days.
All of this saber rattling on Taiwan is a red herring. China isn’t invading them. At least not any time soon. Taiwan is about ready to tip over from all of the missiles that we’ve put there.
China is making noise there, while they pick our pocket in Africa and Central Asia.
Both are at work, but the right path on this would be hard for any US president to find.
“Biden’s Taiwan Betrayal - It’s not incompetence; it’s treason.”
He does it everyday to America so Taiwan should not expect any better.
“Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.”
The legitimate government of China, overthrown by the CCP, is still in power in Taiwan. Reunification means something very different when mainland China is reunified with The Government of the Republic of China, a democracy.
No, it hasn't. The U.S. has supported a "one China" policy for decades.
The issue is whether the "one China" is Red China absorbing Taiwan, or Red China adopting a governing model based on Western-friendly Taiwan.
China is now much better off for its late 1940s divorce.
The Chinese Nationalists were forced to clean up their act on Taiwan.
The Chinese Communists were partially forced to clean up their act by the success of the Chinese Nationalists on Taiwan.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.