Russia and China Confront Biden in Geopolitical Tag Team

For some time, Russia and China have been working together against the interests of the West – especially the U.S. It's been a tag team match that would make the WWE SmackDown proud. In April, Liberty Nation reported that America was in for a great power donnybrook as Presidents Putin and Xi found common cause to oppose our national security interests. With the crisis on the Ukraine border combined with recent Russia-China military exercises, the Biden administration is going to have to up its game. In a recent Newsweek article, Tom O'Connor wrote:

"As crises mount over Ukraine and Taiwan, an unprecedented bond between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping has allowed the United States' two top rivals to force President Joe Biden into a two-front crisis that could spread his administration too thin to respond adequately to either. And should a shooting war erupt, there's little guarantee the US would come out on top."

The US chief executive's problem may not be that his national security team is "spread too thin," but rather that Beijing and Moscow have the Biden squad playing Whac-A-Mole, focusing on one threat, then the other. As a result, the national defense crew doesn't realize it's dealing with a coordinated and, in many ways, integrated Russia-China threat.

What motivates Russia and China to be offensive is not hard to divine. For President Putin, the way he thinks about his country's geopolitical position is best understood remembering his 2005 state of the nation address to the Russian parliament. The BBC reported that Putin called the dissolution of the Soviet Union "'the greatest geopolitical catastrophe’ of the 20th century." The Russian president went on to tell his citizens, "We are a free nation, and our place in the modern world will be defined only by how successful and strong we are …The moment we display weakness or spinelessness, our losses will be immeasurably greater." The Kremlin's behavior on the Ukraine border, the annexation of Crimea, and the invasion of Georgia are ample evidence that Putin means what he says.

In the Pacific, the People's Republic of China's (PRC) contribution to the unofficial Russa-China alliance of evil is Beijing's persistent, bellicose behavior toward Taiwan and nearly constant mischief in the South China Sea. There has never been confusion over the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) designs for bringing Taiwan under its oppressive control. As the BBC explains, "China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province which it has vowed to retake, by force if necessary."

The Pentagon's Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, Ely Ratner, said at a Senate Foreign Relations hearing: "China's air and maritime campaigns around Taiwan were 'intentionally provocative' and increased the likelihood of miscalculation between armed forces in the Indo-Pacific." However, it's not just in the Pacific that the PRC presents a serious problem for Biden.

The Wall Street Journal's Michael M. Phillips wrote on December 5: "Classified American intelligence reports suggest China intends to establish its first permanent military presence on the Atlantic Ocean in the tiny Central African country of Equatorial Guinea, according to U.S. officials." This intrusion into the region on the U.S.'s east is not a surprise. In its warning, "Is China Surrounding The United States," Liberty Nation cautioned of such a move on the part of the CCP. Furthermore, a Reuters December 10 dispatch reported that the Central American country Nicaragua announced it was re-establishing diplomatic relations with China and breaking with "Chinese-claimed Taiwan, boosting Beijing in a part of the world long considered the United States' backyard."

The worldwide belligerence and potential hostilities posed by the evil alliance are real, and the cooperation between Moscow and Beijing is not hidden. Last October, the two U.S. adversaries joined forces in a combined naval exercise off the coast of Japan's main island of Honshu, according to the US Naval Institute News (USNI News). "The Russian Defense Ministry statement noted that this was the first time the countries had conducted joint patrols in the Western Pacific," The USNI News explained.

Certainly, the exercises won't be the end of the collaboration. In the last year, there have been several exercises and drills. Defense News described Russia and China as demonstrating "a sign of increasingly close military cooperation that should expand further." Quoting Sergei Shoigu, Defense News continued: "We have achieved a high level of cooperation between our militaries on land, in the air and at sea…Expanding it is an important part of our future activities." That statement alone should be concerning.

That's not the impression one gets from listening to voices from the Pentagon. A December 8 Defense News article covering the recent Reagan National Defense Forum 2021 described the Defense Department posture this way: "The cautious tone reflects the delicate balance being struck by Pentagon officials as they try to signal potential adversaries shouldn't act – while attempting not to inflame already high regional tensions, inadvertently provoke a reaction or back President Joe Biden into a corner."

Rather than a feckless, "cautious tone," the U.S. needs a bold, strong, unyielding coordinated stance. But unfortunately, the evil alliance shows no signs of being impressed with a cautious tone.

The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliation.

~  Read more from Dave Patterson.