{"id":969885,"date":"2021-11-04T23:13:53","date_gmt":"2021-11-05T03:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=969885"},"modified":"2021-11-04T23:13:55","modified_gmt":"2021-11-05T03:13:55","slug":"former-trump-officials-say-biden-not-tough-enough-on-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-trump-officials-say-biden-not-tough-enough-on-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Trump Officials Say Biden Not Tough Enough on China"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fformer-trump-officials-say-biden-not-tough-enough-on-china%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=969885&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-453444611-e1636066878388-640x335-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">Former Trump administration officials say President Joe Biden is taking too soft an approach on the security threat from China in hopes of cooperating with Beijing on climate change.<\/p>\n<p>Despite Chinese President Xi Jinping not being at the recent COP26 climate summit, Biden avoided a confrontational response when asked by a reporter about China\u2019s military advancements and if he was concerned that the potential for war has grown during his time as president.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cAm I worried about an armed conflict or something accidentally occurring with China? No, I\u2019m not,\u201d Biden said.&nbsp;\u201cI\u2019ve had hours of conversations with Xi Jinping both in person when I was vice president and since I\u2019ve been president, at least five or six hours\u2019 worth of conversations on the telephone, and I am going to be having a virtual summit with him. I\u2019ve made it clear\u2026this is competition; it does not have to be conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/17\/us\/politics\/china-new-cold-war.html\"><em>New York Times<\/em> article<\/a> said Biden\u2019s top aides argue it should be possible for the U.S. and China to \u201ccompartmentalize,\u201d and cooperate on the climate and North Korea, while competing on technology and trade, or \u201cjousting for advantage in the South China Sea and around Taiwan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, there have been a number of media reports on China\u2019s growing military capabilities. According to those reports, China has taken major steps in&nbsp;hypersonic missile and space capability, its nuclear weapons buildup<strong>,<\/strong> and the scale of military exercises around Taiwan, a potential flashpoint with the U.S.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>Some former Trump administration officials say the Biden administration\u2019s strategy to cooperate and compete with China at the same time is unrealistic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid the Chinese sign off on that? It doesn\u2019t even make sense to me because climate policy is about future growth, so it\u2019s like the most geopolitical thing you could actually think of,\u201d said&nbsp;Elbridge Colby, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development in the Trump administration, at a security conference recently.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think this idea makes sense as a strategy. It makes sense as a preferred outcome,\u201d he added. \u201cThat\u2019s a wish, that\u2019s not a strategy. I think to get there, we\u2019re going to have to confront them and stand strong. So the Chinese then understand what the cost-benefit is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also wrote in a recent&nbsp;<em>Wall Street Journal<\/em> op-ed that \u201can ascendant view inside the Biden administration\u201d seems to be that although China represents a serious economic, political and technological challenge to American interests, it is not a direct military threat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a very imprudent assumption that could lead to war and, ultimately, American defeat. To avoid that disastrous outcome, the U.S. must recognize that China is a military threat\u2014and conflict could come soon,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>Another former Trump administration official said the Biden administration\u2019s messaging on China has been \u201cambiguous,\u201d and some of the tension could come from competing camps within the administration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it has to do with climate and the kind of factions within the administration between the John Kerry climate activists and some of the China hawks who are probably situated on the National Security Council,\u201d said the former official, who spoke on background in a briefing with journalists last week.<\/p>\n<p>The former official said the vast majority of Biden\u2019s national security team seems hawkish on China, in a continuation from the Trump administration, but there is evidence of others pushing for a softer approach, as&nbsp;evidenced by Biden\u2019s address at the United Nations General Assembly where he alluded to China several times but did not mention it by name.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a missed opportunity in my view to take a harder line on China. Those speeches go through an incredible vetting process and lots of people have input,\u201d the former official said. \u201cThis was an explicit decision not to mention China\u2026so that, to me says that the Kerry faction won out in whatever internal battle that was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The former official said it is not clear whether the president himself stands on China.&nbsp;Biden has repeatedly suggested the U.S. would come to the defense of Taiwan militarily if China makes a move, but White House officials have quickly come out to walk back his comments.&nbsp;\u201cThere\u2019s some kind of disconnect here,\u201d the former official said.<\/p>\n<p>A third former Trump administration official, also speaking on background, said the Biden administration has been soft on China when it comes to Iran policy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve seen the tension play out as well on the Iran side, where China is obviously the leading sanctions breaker right now. The exports of Iranian crude oil to China have continued to rise throughout the year, which has basically eviscerated any sense of a maximum pressure campaign, which is why the Iranians feel so comfortable to drag this out at the moment,\u201d the third former official said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd yet there has been no crack down on sanctions violations of any significance from this administration. Again, there\u2019s clearly a counter pressure there to preserve good feelings with the Chinese coming from somewhere, and it would make sense for it to be John Kerry,\u201d the former official said.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Follow Breitbart News\u2019s Kristina Wong on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/kristina_wong\">Twitter<\/a>&nbsp;or on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kristinawongreporting\">Facebook<\/a>.<\/em>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Trump administration officials say President Joe Biden is taking too soft an approach on the security threat from China in hopes of cooperating with Beijing on climate change. Despite &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-969885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=969885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=969885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=969885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=969885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}