President Joe Biden was not delivering the appropriate messages during his summit on Monday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Bali, China expert Gordon Chang told Newsmax.
The message Biden should be conveying is that "China's conduct is unacceptable [and] the U.S. will impose cost," Chang told Newsmax's "Wake Up America," saying Biden should be emphasizing that "we don't view friendly relations as being important."
What's vital, Chang stressed, is that Beijing be a responsible member of the international community, and "if it is not a responsible member, then there will be consequences."
Chang, author of "The Coming Collapse of China," lamented that this "is the message I think he [Biden] should deliver, but I don't believe that is the message he did deliver."
Chang said that Xi does not have good relations with any other foreign leader but instead has ties that are dominated by Chinese stagecraft, which Chang said was clear when the two leaders met, with Xi standing in the middle of the room.
"Biden walks towards [Xi], which shows that Biden is the supplicant," Chang said. "I don't know why Biden ever agreed to that, but it is probably a complete failure of advance work."
Regarding the issue of Taiwan, Chang said he was convinced that Biden will do the right thing by drawing a red line, as "the prep work on Taiwan was excellent."
He specified that the Americans publicly announced that they would consult with Taiwan.
The Chinese were "ticked off" by this, Chang said, which he emphasized was a "good thing and set the right tone."
Chang mentioned it is also crucial that the U.S. send a clear message to Moscow.
The Russians have been staging their nuclear assets in the last three or four weeks in areas near Ukraine, and Chang insisted that "the United States needs to make it absolutely clear what will happen if Russia uses their most destructive weapons."
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Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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