Democrat Max Baucus, former President Barack Obama’s U.S. Ambassador to China, told CNN Tuesday afternoon that communist China views Biden as weak.
Baucus’ remarks to CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead” come as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) landed in Taiwan on Tuesday despite warnings not to go from China and by the Biden administration.
“The deeper problem here really is that the visit by the speaker is really pushing America more toward recognizing [Taiwan’s] an independent country,” Baucus said. “That’s a big problem here.”
“Don’t forget, too, Speaker Pelosi, it’s a free pass for her,” he continued. “She’s not the president. She doesn’t have to worry about conducting foreign policy worldwide. She is a member of Congress. She doesn’t have to worry about it. She does a little, but not much.”
Baucus then explained why Biden looks weak to the Chinese.
“Poor Joe Biden,” he said. “He looks weak because he either told her not to go and it looks weak to the Chinese guys or he’s weak because he told her not to go and she went anyway. And that makes us look a little bit weak to the Chinese.”
“I got to tell you, during the time I was serving in Beijing, one thing I really learned: Chinese understand strength better than do people in any other country, and they could smell weakness 100 miles away,” he concluded. “We’ve got to be strong but strong in the best sense.”
WATCH:
Democrat Max Baucus, former U.S. Ambassador to China: China views “poor Joe Biden” as “weak” pic.twitter.com/MY9Y2OVLXF
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) August 2, 2022
China announced that it was launching military operations encircling Taiwan in response to Pelosi visiting the island nation.
Pelosi is the first House speaker to visit Taiwan since Newt Gingrich’s 1997 visit, an island that China falsely claims is its territory, which has sparked China’s military to be put on high alert.
China’s defense ministry said it is launching “targeted military operations” in response to Pelosi’s visit to the island.
Separately, Shi Yi, a spokesperson for the Eastern Theater Command, said in a statement, “This action is targeted at the US’s shocking recent major escalation on the Taiwan issue, and serves as a serious warning to Taiwanese independence forces or those seeking independence.”
China said the military operations would launch on August 4 in six areas that encircle the island.