American foreign relations have been tense for years, and that tension is often unsurprisingly connected to China.
That reality was highlighted this week by a leader in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who described how the Biden administration has fallen short in its competition with the communist nation. Idaho’s Republican Sen. Jim Risch made the remarks during a July 30 hearing with Kurt Campbell, the Deputy Secretary of State.
The long-time lawmaker specifically criticized federal government policies related to China’s global economy, fentanyl trafficking, and spying activities in Cuba. According to Risch, these initiatives spearheaded by the communist nation “demonstrate a desire” to negatively impact America and “undermine” its work to “prioritize resources” in competition.
The Senator added that the federal government “wrongly insists” that the United States is “winning the competition” it has with China, conversely stating that this is “not so.” Risch went on to explain that regional “balance of power” is routinely moving “in China’s favor.”
He cited the Biden administration’s lack of “concrete action” in response to the communist nation’s “escalation against the Philippines” as a not-so-subtle encouragement for China to “further test” the American government’s “resolve.”
He also criticized the White House’s joint security initiative with Australia and Great Britain, which is working to construct nuclear submarines on behalf of Australia. This project, the lawmaker said, was originally expected to be “a game-changer” but has instead been “inhibited” by the State Department, which has undermined the necessary technology to achieve the project’s goal.
In addition to his scathing opening statements before the Senate committee, Risch published a lengthy report on July 29 in which he outlined the failure of American and European joint efforts to counter certain actions spearheaded by China. According to the 160-page document, the Biden administration has shared “grand announcements” in this area but “repeatedly failed to implement” any of them.
Some of the purported failures of the administration include a backwards policy result, which leads to “closer linages” between China and other American foes such as Iran, North Korea, and Russia.
