Antony Blinken appears to be intentionally trying to start trouble with China, practically daring them to go ahead and do something about Taiwan, so we can fight back. Of course, he doesn’t phrase it that way.
Blinken poking a tiger
Taiwan is a sensitive subject around Xi Jinping. He paid a whole lot of money to buy Joe Biden’s influence and it seems to be a worthless investment, because Joe can’t seem to remember his part of the deal.
Blinky Blinken is running around the State Department acting like he owns the place and seems to have made a hobby out of antagonizing the Pooh Bear. If this keeps up, it’s going to look a lot like that new “Blood and Honey” movie about to come out.
The same way that Puerto Rico is part of the U.S., Taiwan belongs to China. That is, the State Department implies, as long as China doesn’t try to stop them from being independent.
Blinky doesn’t see that as a change in the One China policy or anything. It makes everyone wonder if Secretary Blinken wants to start a nuclear war. If not, he might just blunder us into one. “We will align our efforts with our network of allies and partners,” he declared at George Washington University on Thursday, May 26.
The Blinken scheme calls for the administration to “invest in the foundations of our strength at home — our competitiveness, our innovation, our democracy. We will align our efforts with our network of allies and partners, acting with common purpose and in common cause. And harnessing these two key assets, we’ll compete with China to defend our interests and build our vision for the future.”
Basically that says a whole lot of nothing and says it well. The key words were “compete with China” and “defend our interests.” Beijing can read between the lines. Blinky twisted the knife with the “our vision” of the future kicker at the end.
Xi in league with Putin
Blinken doesn’t come out and say it, but with careful positioning of words he manages to imply that Xi Jinping is in bed with Vlad Putin and helping the invasion of Ukraine. He did that by underscoring “Beijing’s defense of President Putin’s war to erase Ukraine’s sovereignty and secure a sphere of influence in Europe.” That, he says “should raise alarm bells for all of us, who call the Indo-Pacific region home.” When did the U.S. start calling that area home?
We need to “more broadly emphasized the importance of focusing on the threats.” Specifically, the ones “the Chinese government poses to the world.” If that’s not a slap in the face, nothing is.
China is up to something sneaky or they wouldn’t be nervous about us talking to Taiwan about things like “freedom,” Blinken explains.
“China is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do it.” They might just decide to invade Hawaii in retaliation. Last week, Joe Biden himself was crystal clear that “the U.S. would respond militarily if Beijing attacked Taiwan.”
He spent 40 whole minutes in his tirade against China, calling the Washington-Beijing relationship “one of the most complex and consequential relationships of any that we have in the world today.” Antony Blinken simply thrives on causing more chaos in it by referring to China’s “repressive government, unfair trade practices and human rights abuses.”
Summing up, the secretary noted, “we can’t rely on Beijing to change its trajectory. So we will shape the strategic environment around Beijing to advance our vision for an open and inclusive international system.” To shape that environment, “we will defend and strengthen the international law, agreements, principles, and institutions that maintain peace and security, protect the rights of individuals and sovereign nations, and make it possible for all countries — including the United States and China — to coexist and cooperate.” Especially Taiwan.
