Biden's Misbegotten Mission to Beijing - Center for Security Policy

Joe Biden is off to China. Team Obama hopes his personal relationship with Chinese president Xi Jinping will improve relations strained by Beijing’s aggressiveness, including a new air defense identification zone over several Japanese-controlled islands.

What’s wrong with this picture? First, the Chinese know our vice president is the object of ridicule from the White House on down. He’s unlikely to get respect from folks who don’t think much of Americans on a good day.

Second, Biden’s conciliatory message is as bad as the messenger. A visit to China for any purpose other than to tell its leadership to rescind the air defense zone announcement will be seen for what it is: accommodation to a new, Chinese-dictated order.

Joe Biden’s trip will increase the dangers of Chinese miscalculation, not erase them.