Asked recently to comment on Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine and the pre-Olympic meeting between Presidents Xi Jianping and Vladimir Putin, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Daniel Kritenbrink claimed Beijing “should have used the summit to encourage Russia to pursue diplomacy and de-escalation in Ukraine. That is what the world expects from responsible powers.”
No doubt Xi feels mortified by Kritenbrink’s words. Unfortunately, the Nebraskan’s statement is typical technocratic balderdash and remarkably naïve.
Kritenbrink, of course, is fully aware that Xi and Putin specifically met to strengthen their unholy alliance against the United States, the West, and flip the world order that we’ve enjoyed since the end of World War II.
Certainly any American concerned about his country’s place in the world should be aware.
The assistant secretary of state’s statement, moreover, is a prime example as to why President Joe Biden is failing around the world and why China and Russia are ascendant.
While the Biden Administration exercises soft power for diplomacy’s sake and deludes itself into believing this strategy can possibly advance our national security interests, China and Russia deal in the world of hard power and realpolitik. The strategy of sanctimonious lecturing cannot and should not replace the successful Ronald Reagan strategy of peace through strength. Yet it has. READ MORE
