President Joe Biden met virtually with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, but the administration has to warn China on aggression against the Philippines while seeking to turn the American economy dependent on electric vehicles through the House passage of the Build Back Better budget reconciliation package.
"It is insane for the United States to trade with China, and to invest in China, to provide technology to China when China is configuring its military to kill Americans and to move against our allies," Far East foreign affairs expert Gordon Chang told Sunday's "The Cats Roundtable" on WABC 770 AM-N.Y.
Chang told host John Catsimatidis the warning to China about aggressions against the Philippines is just the latest spark in rising tensions around the South China Sea.
"This time the State Department felt it was so serious that it had to mention the possibility that the U.S. would use force to protect the Philippines from China," Chang said. "This is a situation that deserves watching.
"The Chinese will probably slink away after this statement from Washington. Nonetheless, Beijing is extremely arrogant; extremely hostile and provocative; and very well may force a confrontation with the Biden administration."
The timing is particularly curious as the $2 trillion Build Back Better social tax-and-spend bill passed the House and heads to the Senate, which promises to push electric vehicles that will rely heavily on the Chinese market of lithium batteries.
"This increases our dependence on China because they are the source of lithium," Chang noted. "They supply batteries.
"Whatever one thinks of climate change, this is not the time to be reinforcing and supporting the Chinese economy as Beijing moves against us," he concluded.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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