US President Biden cannot afford weakness

Joe Biden

The US President must not allow himself any weakness in domestic or foreign policy.

(Photo: AP)

Washington When the Chinese spy balloon crashed into the Atlantic, the US President was on Air Force One and was informed in real time about the downing. A few days ago, Joe Biden wanted to have the balloon brought down from the sky, but the US military waited until the object was above water. The White House is revealing these details and many more about the balloon incident, and the wealth of information is unusual for national security concerns.

But Biden’s advisors obviously have a keen interest in Biden being in the public eye as a resolute president who reacted harshly to a violation of US airspace by China. The balloon incident has plunged US-China relations into a deep crisis.

At the same time, the shooting is a signal from Biden to the US citizens who are going to the presidential election in 2024. The US President has not yet officially declared his candidacy, but there are many indications that he is running for a second term.

In fact, hardly any issue is more dangerous for Biden’s backing than China. It is a country that is culturally foreign to many Americans and, from their point of view, is responsible for the industrial decline of the USA. Never before have US citizens thought so little of China as they do today. In surveys, more than 80 percent have a negative opinion of the second largest economy in the world. Only Iran and North Korea are more rejected.

By the 2024 presidential election, Republicans and Democrats will be outdoing each other in anti-China rhetoric and action. At the beginning of his term in office, the US President had vowed to maintain dialogue with Beijing. He wants to work pragmatically with China on climate policy or the North Korean conflict. At the same time, Biden excludes Chinese companies from future-oriented industries more consistently than any president before him.

Washington accuses Beijing of lying

So far, it was important to him that his punitive measures were targeted and should primarily focus on the tech area. The balloon launch now raises the conflict between the world’s two largest economies to a new level. He reminds that the situation can also escalate militarily through provocation.

>> Read also: The most pressing questions after the launch of the Chinese balloon

The incident is particularly explosive because the US accuses the Chinese side of lying: Beijing insists that it was a weather balloon that had drifted away, which Washington rejects as “clearly wrong”. How should trusting discussions at eye level be possible?

Under these circumstances, Biden’s scope for a diplomatic rapprochement is becoming smaller and smaller. Domestically, he cannot afford to be weak – and neither can he in foreign and security policy, given the closeness between China and Russia in the Ukraine war and given warnings of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

In the past, China and the US have often fallen out. They always found their way back to a negotiating table because they share some strategic and economic interests. The rest of the world can only hope that both sides can start again this time.

More: Berlin expects even more espionage from China

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