China sensed weakness not strength in Alaska

While an early China challenge was expected and the Biden team stumbled badly in Anchorage, the US still has cards to play

Last week’s meetings between US and Chinese officials in Anchorage, Alaska – highlighted by China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi opening the talks with a 20-minute lambasting of the Americans – was something of a Rorschach test.

Some observers describe a humiliating disaster from which President Biden’s team – and the United States – will not recover. Others see it as just a bump in a longer continuum of US-PRC relations and not so important in the long run. And some say it was just Yang performing for his domestic audience, so nothing to worry about.

Certain optimists even consider the event a net-win for the Americans – as it displayed Chinese communist boorishness to the entire world. And this, it is argued, will drive governments away from the PRC and toward the United States. The flip side, though, is that some people might admire the PRC for having the brass to berate the Americans on US soil – and get away with it.

Despite being rattled, the Americans continued the two days of scheduled talks with their Chinese counterparts. And in a small victory, considering pre-Trump US behavior, they did not appear to offer gratuitous concessions to get the bilateral relationship “back on track.”

Further on this positive note: After their Alaska blowtorching, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan got the European Union, Britain, and Canada to join the United States in announcing sanctions against Beijing for mistreatment of China’s Uighur population. Blinken and company deserve credit for this.

Taking the Rorschach test

Having watched the videos, viewed the pictures and read the transcripts, this writer will lie back on the couch and explain what he saw.

It was a clear embarrassment for the Americans. They came unprepared – or maybe only prepared for an Oxford Union debate with port and cigars and gentleman’s rules strictly enforced.

It is baffling that the Americans allowed press coverage and thus a global audience for the opening statements. Blinken and Sullivan should have expected Yang to go on the offensive – and he did.

And the side that gets in the first shot usually wins.

Team Biden’s members were supposed to be pros at diplomacy – as opposed to Trump’s amateurs. Or at least that’s what they told us for four years.