The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has — at the cost of a balloon — tested the resolve of President Joe Biden as America’s commander-in-chief and probed America’s air defenses.
China’s leaders can now be confident that they can get away with murder. Their successful reconnaissance mission has highlighted the many points I tried to make in 2019 when I wrote ”America is at War with China” for the Washington Times and is the reason I am writing to you today.
As a fellow patriot, I encourage you to demand resignations from Biden and his so-called “military advisors.”
Biden’s reasoning for not shooting the CCP’s balloon down over land was that it would create a debris field that threatened life and property. This leaves one to wonder: what if the CCP had floated the balloon over Washington, D.C., but instead of containing surveillance equipment, it contained a nuclear bomb?
By waiting several days from the earliest reports that the balloon had violated U.S. airspace before shooting it down, Biden showed he simply does not believe America is at war with China. Not that this should come as a surprise. Biden has historically dismissed the CCP’s threat to America.
Biden’s assessment of China remains unchanged from May 1, 2019, when, during his presidential campaign, he said, “China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man. They can’t even figure out how to deal with the fact that they have this great division between the China Sea and the mountains in the east, I mean in the west. They can’t figure out how they will deal with the corruption within the system. I mean, you know, they’re not bad folks, folks. But guess what, they’re not competition for us.”
Again, what if the spy balloon contained a nuclear bomb? Biden’s failure to act immediately and decisively to order the Air Force to shoot it down — before it flew over land — means that he cannot be trusted as commander in chief.
Nor can Biden’s military advisors be trusted to protect America. Biden says that they advised him not to shoot down the spy balloon over land. Here too, one is left to wonder: Why didn’t they advise him to shoot it down before it floated over land, which was the only sound military action to take.
Biden’s military advisors — foremost being the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark “China is not our enemy” Milley — who during your administration told his CCP counterpart that he would give the CCP notification ‘of an attack’ by the United States on China — like Biden do not believe America is at war with China.
In these times, when the stakes are too high to be anything but a warrior when dealing with the CCP and its paramount leader Xi Jinping (who is also chairman of China’s “Central Military Commission”), Biden and his military advisors lack both the requisite warrior mindset and an understanding of their enemy.
Biden’s stated belief that “they’re not bad folks” and Milley’s stated belief that “China is not our enemy” show that they have no idea who they’re dealing with.
Xi is an ultranationalist who considers the United States to be China’s most dangerous enemy. He does not want a partnership with the United States in the style of the CCP’s former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping whose central principle was “to reform and open up,” and whose policies were responsible for the economic growth China enjoyed until recently.
Furthermore, Xi’s motivation for winning a war in the Western Pacific against the United States or any one of its allies and asserting sovereignty over the South China Sea, Taiwan, and other disputed areas like the Senkaku Islands and establishing a China-led global orde,r is not purely economic. It’s also about revenge for the “hundred years of national humiliation” or the period of intervention and subjugation of China’s Qing dynasty and the Republic of China by Western powers and Japan from 1839 to 1949.
On top of this, the window of opportunity for Xi’s legacy is closing: China’s economy has peaked and may be facing permanent decline while U.S.-led alliances in Asia continue to strengthen, threatening to stuff China’s military ambitions.
Christopher Beres is an attorney who received his master’s degree in Oriental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. An expert on Cambodia, he has represented the Cambodian Government in international litigation.
