President Biden’s foreign policy decisions have aided China’s ambition to raise as an adversary to the United States
Since taking the oath of office as President of the world’s only super-power post-Cold War, Joe Biden has committed foreign policy goof-ups one after another, rarely done by any American head of state post-WWII. Surprisingly many observers of American politics don’t expect such an act from a politician who has been at the helm of affairs of his country’s politics holding various significant positions. Having a direct link with the country’s foreign policy formulation and implementation since the early 1970s uninterrupted, he is in fact one of the most experienced national-level politicians in America.
To start with Joe Biden retained his predecessor Donald Trump’s much-criticized and condemned Afghanistan policy, which handed over the landlocked Islamic terror-savaged country to the Taliban, the Islamic fundamentalist group that believes in radical theology conceptualized in the early medieval age. It is needed to be noted that this fundamentalist outfit was trained with modern weapons and warfare and equipped by the CIA in the 1980s, and was responsible for a dreaded terror attack on its promoter, the world’s mighty superpower, at its very foundation of prowess i.e. Pentagon and The White House (latter was narrowly missed from being attacked) deep inside the country’s sovereign territory two decades back. As a result of Biden’s policy, Communist China, deprived of precious minerals including uranium, lithium, and rare-earth, now has got access to such mineral commodities in Islamists occupied countries. Apart from the above, the possibility of the landlocked country providing over-ground logistic links to China with energy-rich Arab countries through BRI projects cannot be ruled out. On the other hand, already Pakistan, the world factory of Islamic terror, has slipped out of the US-led Western powers’ grip and is now about to be in the lap of Islamists, which got the power in neighbouring Afghanistan in a platter, taking advantage of lawlessness due to economic and food crisis under highly unpopular and corrupt military supervised political dispensation. In the meanwhile, China could manage to get rapprochement between two dreaded warring Arab power blocs led by one Sunni Saudi Arabia and another one by Shia Iran. Here, the fact that needs to be noted is that during Joe Biden’s tenure in The White House, Sunni Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, a long-time ally of America, started distancing from it notwithstanding the Sunni-majority United Arab Emirates, an economic super-power in the oil-rich Gulf region, signed Donald Trump mediated and facilitated Abrahamic Accord with Arab-Islamic world’s common rival Zionist Israel with known tacit support from Saudi Arabia.
Next, The White House went ahead with signing an agreement with Australia and the UK popularly known as AUKUS to supply technology to Oceania’s continental island country to build nuclear submarines at the cost of the latter’s existing under-implemented agreement with France to supply diesel-powered submarines causing huge financial loss to latter. The issue had so escalated that France withdrew its diplomats from Canberra and Washington DC causing an irreparable internal crack among countries in the world’s most powerful military alliance called NATO whose unity has a huge significance when the revisionist Red Dragon led by a dictator wants to make China the undisputed super-power of the world comes what way and has been escalating border disputes with its neighbours including American allies ferreting out issues in its self-written history.
During the dreaded run of Covid19 pandemic, America under the leadership of Biden played a very dubious and uncharacteristic role despite being the undisputed economic and military super-power and the oldest and second largest democracy due to which it has a huge role in any crisis world population encounters. Instead Biden-led country was found blocking the vaccines four to five times of its population’s requirement depriving poor and small countries of their rational shares. Apart from this, Biden Administration had banned the supply of vital ingredients on the flimsy ground for the production of vaccines in India, the world’s vaccine factory, and dependable supplier of vaccines to many small and poor countries during the crucial time of the worldwide fight against the pandemic.
Despite being the leading player in Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD), America under Biden violated the group member country India’s territorial integrity by intentionally allowing the US-flagged warship to pass through the latter’s sovereign water a la China used to do with her neighbours without due intimation, and when questioned for this violation, its State Department gave a reply that facilitated China to mock India. And this happened just a year after China violated India’s territorial integrity on the northern border in the Ladakh region, and to date had its massive forces with full war gears stationed on the LAC peering with a full display of territorial hunger for India’s territory. America’s behaviour had caused strain to bilateral relations between two prominent members of QUAD which is formed with hidden agenda to check territorial hunger and revisionist policies of Xi Jinping in the Asia-Pacific region, the most happening region in the world in so far as world’s economic activities were concerned.
Another such in the series of Joe Biden’s uncharacteristic foreign policies is instigating a dubious democratic regime in Kyiv -as it is alleged that Volodymyr Zelenskyy government in Ukraine is one of the highly corrupt and has been indulging in human rights violations apart from many of its ministers hold dual citizenship including American- to disobey the security concern of Russia by way of allowing US-led NATO reaching the biting distance of former violating the security agreement signed with former Warsaw Pact leader post-Berlin wall dismantle leading to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine which seems not going to end in near future as former has got unprecedented support from Xi Jinping and oil purchase funding from a victim itself if we go by American journalist Seymour Hersh investigation and latter has been fuelled with NATO funding and arms and ammunitions supplies. Post-pandemic disputed recovery, the entire world has been suffering from a short supply of commodities including food grains, and minerals, and is on the verge of recession purely due to the war between these two countries which are the world’s commodity powerhouses. This war forced Russian President Vladimir Putin, who holds the command of the world’s largest stockpile of N-Weapons, so far reluctant to be a natural ally of Xi Jinping, the latter was in desperate need of the same for the easy availability of commodities and connectivity to accomplish his long-cherished world superpower status overtaking the Uncle Sam by the time of celebrating the first anniversary of the establishment of Communist regime in Beijing.
Last but not least is Biden’s foreign policy goof up in the Asia-Pacific region involving Taiwan, a tiny island democratic nation close to China which the latter’s Communist rulers claim as their a la they claim India’s Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh, etc. as its sovereign territories without historical justification. During the last two years, one day The White House says that it will protect Taiwan’s sovereignty as per the Taiwan Act of 1978 involving its military if forces were used by others to occupy the same, and on the other day, it says it will respect its decades-long One-China policy. In front of the mighty second largest economic and military power -in the case of military prowess, PLA is one the fastest growing ones-, Taiwan is nothing. Can America located far away from the island nation save it without a physical presence within the territory from PLA attack if the Chinese leadership wishes so? Expecting the use of American troops and war-gears stationed in security alliance partners such as South Korea, Japan, Philippines, etc. to fight the Chinese possible attack on Taiwan is not that easy as this would widen the war geography having unprecedented worldwide repercussions which leadership of these countries may not afford. Another important aspect is so far almost all Communist regimes all over the world had/have not shown any concern for human rights. For them, expanding their administrative territory and accomplishing authoritarian prowess come first. In view of this, the Biden administration should have a clear-cut and pragmatic policy towards Taiwan and Indo-Pacific region, and so also for other regions.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the views of the Government of India and Defence Research and Studies
