Former Official Calls for Biden Administration to Apply Clarity in Policy Towards China

A former official has called on the Biden administration to apply clarity in its policy towards China. President Joe Biden mentioned China briefly during his hour-long State of the Union speech on Feb. 7. He began by asserting the United States is “in the strongest position in decades to compete with China or anyone else in the world,” given U.S. investment in industries and alliances, working with allies, and U.S. military modernization. “I am committed to work with China where we can advance American interests and benefit the world,” Biden added. As an example of protecting U.S. sovereignty, he referenced his order on Feb. 4 to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon that flew over the United States for days. “But make no mistake about it: as we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country. And we did,” Biden said. “China only got almost 30 seconds to a minute mention in the entire State of the Union that went for an hour and 20 minutes. So it was kind of astonishing that way,” Steve Yates, Former Deputy National Security Adviser at the White House said in “China in Focus” on NTD. “He didn’t directly address the balloon [incident]. He sort of alluded to it, though, saying ‘if China were to challenge our sovereignty, I would respond and I did,’” he added. Initially detected on Jan. 28, the balloon entered the United States twice with a brief incursion over Canada’s airfield, traveling through multiple sensitive military sites before an F-22 fighter jet shot it down from the sky off the Carolina coast a week later. “It shows a little bit of weakness in terms of protecting American sovereignty, our homeland. It doesn’t really matter what was on the balloon, if it was doing visual surveillance, obviously, the ability to carry something like that across our territory was deeply provocative,” Yates said, referring to the U.S. response in the Chinese spy balloon incident. Ambiguity Persists He cited Biden’s comment that he prefers competition rather than conflict with China, noting that Chinese Communist Party (CCP) head Xi Jinping “has proven by his actions that he doesn’t shy away from conflict.” “He sent his wolf warriors to bark different criticisms at his Secretary of State National Security Adviser, he crushed Hong Kong with impunity, he has threatened Taiwan somewhat with impunity from the United States,” Yates said. “The President has spoken up, but there’s a lot of ambiguity in what the United States is prepared to do about it,” he added. “So I think a lot of mixed signals, and unclear priorities, leave an advantage for Beijing,” Yates said. The Epoch Times has reached out to the White House for comments. Reciprocity He called for the United States to use “reciprocity” in its China approach. “We need to right-size U.S.-China policy to be consistent with what they’re doing with us. They don’t allow us to own agricultural land in China, so they shouldn’t be allowed to own agricultural land in the United States. They control access to their markets and their platforms, and they force transparency. Well, we should do the same,” he said. Yates said that state governors and legislatures should take the initiative in pushing back threats from China, citing the move by South Dakota. In December, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem proposed legislation to restrict farmland purchases by foreign countries, namely China. “With this new process, we will be able to prevent nations who hate us—like Communist China—from buying up our state’s agriculture land,” Noem said in a statement. “There are many states that are passing laws to ban particular CCP activities or investments. And I think as the states aggregate those moves, the federal government, by way of the Congress will be forced to accommodate, too,” Yates said. Frank Fang contributed to this report.