Democrat President Joe Biden faced significant backlash on Friday following a meeting that his administration had with Chinese communist officials on U.S. soil, a meeting that was widely panned as tense, chaotic, and disastrous.
The meeting in Alaska came at the request of the Biden administration and was their attempt at trying to restart bilateral relations with China. Instead, after addressing some issues that the administration had with China, China openly mocked and attacked the U.S.
Chinese officials told Biden’s administration that the U.S. “does not have the qualification to say that it wants to speak to China from a position of strength” and that “whether judged by population scale or the trend of the world, the Western world does not represent the global public opinion.”
China analyst Gordon Chang responded to the meeting by saying that China did “not come to Alaska to talk to the Biden administration.”
“They came to dictate,” Chang said. “China’s arrogant and insecure leaders are at their most dangerous. Deterrence is failing. Biden’s most urgent task is to reestablish it.”
“Biden is weak. And many other countries are happy about it,” former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell said. “And the woke US media is too partisan to report fairly.”
While not directly calling out the Biden administration’s performance at the meeting, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote on Twitter: “Strength deters bad guys. Weakness begets war.”
Strength deters bad guys. Weakness begets war.
— Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) March 19, 2021
Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Rebeccah Heinrichs told The Daily Wire in a statement:
I’m glad to see [Secretary of State Antony] Blinken raise issues China censors like Taiwan and Tibet and Xinjiang. But for this inflection point in US-Chinese relations we are going to need a lot more than a bold scripted statement.
Rather than staying focused on giving China specific demands and conveying our seriousness, the US team insulted half the Americans who voted for Trump and was glad for his administration’s foreign policy approach by saying “America is back.” America never left. And it’s the approach from the last administration that returned our focus on China and power and away from merely abstract ideas when we deal with other nations.
The Biden team told the Chinese the “rule-based international order” system is not an abstraction. It IS an abstraction. The US does have a better system than the Chinese and we do have the moral authority to lead, and we can comfort ourselves with those nice notions of democracy when the Chinese sink our [aircraft] carriers and bases and, in doing so, dominate Asia. Because that’s what could happen if we don’t get serious in a hurry. The Biden team scolded the Chinese by telling them might doesn’t make right. And that’s true. But might defends what’s right. And if we don’t get the power part right, well, Pax Americana was a good run.
We have external threats like China but critical race theory and identity politics at home makes us a splintered, self-loathing mess. The CCP knows this. It’s why they used all those BLM talking points in Alaska. So, just as important as it is to counter China with power, Republican officials and anyone else who will listen has to do what they can to end the anti-American indoctrination at home.
Political commentator Mike Cernovich called the meeting “humiliating” for the U.S., adding that “the U.S. lost it’s first battle with China. Badly.”
Humiliating. Tonight the US lost it’s first battle with China. Badly. https://t.co/AclMzQlpQh
— Mike Cernovich (@Cernovich) March 19, 2021
Center for Security Policy President Fred Fleitz — former NSC Chief of Staff, CIA analyst, and House Intel Com staff member — effectively said that the Biden administration was responsible for the meeting being a disaster.
Fleitz wrote in a series of tweets:
Let’s think about the incredible incompetence by the Biden admin which led to that train wreck of a press conference that @SecBlinken and @JakeSullivan46 held with their Chinese counterparts in Alaska yesterday. Blinken thought it was a good idea to open their meeting by slamming China before the press, probably thinking this would help counter Republican criticism Biden is weak on China. Of course the US needs to raise the issues Blinken mentioned, but raising them at a joint press conference insulted the Chinese and caused them to lose face.
Blinken foolishly did not anticipate that the Chinese officials would retaliate in their remarks responding to him. This gave the Chinese officials a rare opportunity to dress down the Secretary of State before the press. Blinken was visibly unnerved by the Chinese response. Blinken’s response was defensive and incoherent. He also repeated Biden’s silly “America is back” theme.
Most disturbing, despite Blinken and Sullivan’s criticism of China, there was not one word on Beijing’s criminal negligence that allowed the coronavirus to become a dangerous pandemic or any criticism of China for its continuing refusal to fully cooperate with international investigations of the origins of the virus, including inspections of the Wuhan biolabs.
This press event in Alaska was a debacle that will build a perception that the US is returning to Jimmy Carter-like incompetence in foreign policy. America’s enemies are watching and planning how to cash.
Social media was filled with numerous criticisms from reporters and commentators who said that China effectively ate America’s lunch at the meeting.
Our Secretary of State is really playing No Reservations before getting humiliated to his face by our global rivals https://t.co/zlrdAbHdzO
— Amber Athey (@amber_athey) March 19, 2021
China is betting that many influential Americans will think there's an equivalence between America's civil rights problems and *actually committing genocide against an ethnic minority.*
I fear that's not a terrible bet. https://t.co/OQ9m6d40UG
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) March 19, 2021
We got our asses handed to us today, but woke America is worried abt Dr. Seuss and mean tweets. pic.twitter.com/i9GsW6BC4w
— 48™️ (@fadde) March 19, 2021
The Chinese Communist Party just absolutely humiliated the big guy on American soil.
— Emma-Jo Morris (@EmmaJoNYC) March 19, 2021
If you search for "Chinese Food" on the DoorDash app, it now has a picture of Tony Blinken.
— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) March 19, 2021