Biden, Xi faceoff

T he ensuing confrontation between the United States and China is quite unnerving. It took a new plausible new height as President Joe Biden had a tête-à-tête with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in a virtual talk a couple of days ago. The conversation primarily revolved around the status quo over Ukraine, where Washington finds itself deep in quagmire as it has not been able to address the security expectations under NATO for the European states.

At the same time, Kiev is getting restless and there is no tangible recourse to its miseries as it faces an unflinching onslaught at the hands of Russians. Biden’s proposition that Beijing should stay away from the crisis and adopt neutrality had apparently fallen on deaf ears. The reasons are many, and prime among them is that China cannot let an assertive NATO march eastward, and it is on a common denominator with Moscow.

This commonality of interests is puzzling for the US and is leading to a full-blown bilateral crisis with China. The video conferencing on July 28, was part of a series of confidence building measures as both the leaders are yet to meet since Biden assumed his high office. The US took it as an opportunity to hint at Taiwan and the fissures in the South China Sea. Xi’s zero-tolerance to accept American meddling reportedly made the virtual summit a hotbed of confrontation. This is all happening as both the countries are already in a trade war, and Chinese investors who have poured trillions into Manhattan and the West Coast are keeping their fingers crossed. Biden is faced with a faux pas.

In the wake of exit from Afghanistan, he announced that the US would keep itself aloof from warmongering, and will desist from fighting others’ wars. But sooner than later, exigency in realpolitik forced the US to take a U-turn and take on head-on issues such as Taiwan, Southwest Asia, the Middle East and Ukraine. Biden’s recent Yatra to Israel and Saudi Arabia was to make a point that it is not going away anywhere. What is needed is a détente with Beijing as it impacts trade and commerce for the world at large. In an era of renewed recession, this clash of titans is nothing but suicidal.