AMAC Exclusive – By Ben Solis
On January 8, the Chinese military announced two days of live-fire drills off the coast of Ningbo and Zhoushan in the East China Sea – just a few miles away from Japanese territory and a U.S. military installation on Mageshima Island – in Beijing’ latest act of aggression. But President Joe Biden appears to have been lulled into a false sense of security that shows no sign of abating following recent conversations with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
While the Chinese government called the drills part of a “routine” military exercise, their proximity to important Japanese and American assets cannot be ignored. Japanese leaders have also warned of escalating hostility from Beijing in recent months.
Tensions have been particularly hot over the Senkaku Islands, an uninhabited but strategically important group of islands located northeast of Taiwan which are claimed by both China and Japan.
According to a report from Sankei Shimbun, a conservative Japanese daily newspaper, Xi indicated his intention to take control of the Senkaku Islands during a rare trip to Shanghai’s Chinese Coast Guard Command Office last November.
“We will never let even 1 millimeter of our territory be taken,” Xi reportedly said, reiterating the motto of his presidency: “Make steps only forward” (a dictum taken from Mao). Xi also demanded that China’s Coast Guard inspect Japanese fishing boats, provocative behavior that will further sour bilateral relations.
Xi’s comments set off “red lights flashing in the Tokyo headquarters of Japan’s government,” according to Sankei Shimbun – particularly as 2023 marked a new record in the number of times Chinese Coast Guard ships entered the disputed Senkaku waters.
Many Japanese leaders believe that Xi’s hostile intentions toward the Senkaku Islands are part of a broader effort to isolate Taiwan and deprive Japan of a location from which to stage a rapid deployment of forces in the event of a Chinese invasion.
A blockade of the waters around Senkaku under the pretense of a sovereignty dispute would also allow China to regularly sail between the remote Yonaguni and Iriomote Islands in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture, where major U.S. and Japanese air bases are located.
On December 29, just over a month after his reported comments on the Senkaku Islands, Xi also urged Chinese diplomats and ambassadors gathered in Beijing to think of themselves as a “diplomatic iron army… with an attitude of readiness to fight and a firm will to defy strong powers.”
As Abdurakhman Avtorkhanov, a renowned Chechen historian of the Soviet Union, wrote in his book The Origins of Partocracy, the term “diplomatic iron army” is one coined by Mikhail Suslov, a Soviet Politburo member during the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras.
Meanwhile, the Chinese military has also ramped up its incursions into Taiwanese waters and airspace. In total, China deployed more than 1,700 military planes around Taiwan in 2023 – a dramatic spike from 972 in 2021 and just 380 in 2020. Additionally, 61 Chinese missiles landed in the Taiwan Strait or surrounding Taiwanese waters last year.
But despite clear signs of mounting aggression from Beijing, President Biden has seemed placated by Xi Jinping’s proclamations of peace.
On January 1, Xi and Biden exchanged pleasantries commemorating the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the United States and the communist country. In a statement the following day, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry characterized the U.S.-China relationship as “consistent and clear” and defined by “mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation.”
“Enormous confidence is beaming from this statement,” retired Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Hiroto Watanabe, a former Japanese military intelligence official, told me, adding that Xi has “accelerated the destabilization of the region in the last three years and ambushed Hong Kong, but his focus is on Taiwan.”
The Biden administration has seemed to back down from its hostile rhetoric toward Beijing following meetings between Biden and Xi in San Francisco last November. In a readout of that meeting, the White House noted that the two leaders had agreed to work together to combat “climate change” and resume “high-level military-to-military communication.”
The apparently warm feelings emerging between Biden and Xi are of great alarm to U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific witnessing China’s aggression first-hand. A Pew Research poll from December found that 76 percent of Japanese citizens view China’s power and influence as a major threat, along with 66 percent of people in Taiwan and 64 percent in South Korea.
Another former Japanese military officer, retired Vice Admiral Fumio Ota, told me that Biden, as opposed to former President Donald Trump, had wholly abandoned a “maximum pressure policy” when it comes to China. Several South Korean officials with whom I spoke also said that they were troubled by Biden’s optimism about China, further saying that Biden should direct the U.S. military to drill as much as China as a matter of deterrence.
But even as America’s allies are raising the alarm, Biden appears content to believe Xi’s assurances of peace over hard evidence of looming conflict.
Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.
oh please, he is bought and paid for by China, he does what he is told. China didnt give him 55 million for nothing.
Biden has NOT been lulled into a false sense of security! His service to the CCP has been bought and paid for through his son, Hunter! Crooked Joe proved that when he sold part our strategic oil reserves to a Chinese company that serves the interests of the CCP.
AMAC should know better than to let Crooked Joe off the hook with a headline that suggests Crooked Joe is just stupid. In fact he is not even running the show here. Obama is. This whole mess is a continuation of Obama’s “fundamental transformation” of the U.S. into a third world country!
It is more a b*tch doing his master’s(Xi)bidding than being lulled into a false sense of security. It is intentional.
“Biden lulled into false sense of security as Japan warns of growing Chinese threat.” ???
Oh, I get it, like humor only different. The only thing that lulls Joe Biden is an ice cream cone from the Good Humor van. At some point the media, including this Amac web site will grasp the fact that Joe is in the advanced stage of Dementia. He is incapable of being lulled, or alarmed by anything.
obama’s puppeteers, (“consultants”), Susan Rice, and Valerie Jarrett manipulate hapless Joe to give him the appearance of a sentient being, but that is getting more and more difficult as his dementia condition worsens.
And those that are concerned about the behavior of China? They should be communicating with obama, our third term President. Not that obama would do much about this matter since he probably benefited from Chinese corruption money too.
Harsh judgements? Not really when one considers the character of the average American politician. I would place more trust in a used car salesman that most of our “trusted” political representatives.
We have the best form of government in the world but it has glaring weaknesses. The Founding Fathers should have acted more strongly in creating the Constitution with its Bill of Rights. You know, things like term limits, balanced budget, voter ID, the duties of the office holders in the Federal Government.
I know, I know, it would have been almost impossible for the Founders to have addressed all of the vulnerabilities of the principles and laws found in the Constitution, but Really! Not seeing the temptations of power and money of the elected positions in the Congress? Harry Truman said: “Show me a middle class Senator or Representative that leaves office as a millionaire, and I will show you a crook.”
The problem is biden doesn’t have enough mental capabilities to see what’s occurring and the marxist democrat party with obama hate America and hope for its destruction.
These traitors MUST GO
Americans must look at the big picture, this is not just Biden it is all of the Socialist Democrats! They are all bought and paid for and they have all waged war on America!
It used to be fashionable for democrat presidents to oppose communism. Somewhere along the line they embraced and enabled it. Recall how they bitterly fought reagan, often taking the side of the soviets. I guess they never stopped loving slavery because thats what communism brings.
Biden is bought and paid for by the Chinese.
Xi has got Biden in his back pocket, probably send Biden another couple million just for being a good guy. Also Biden is fixated on this phony climate change BS he doesn’t see the real dangers China poses.
Does anyone truly believe that FJB has any sense of anything?
Brain dead Biden is ushering in China taking Taiwan and whoever else that gets in their way in the process. Any question that he’s not compromised should be answered by this article…
This is what happens when you let the fox into the hen house, or more directly by allowing a senile old fool with a history of fabrication and personal aggrandization specifically designed to line his own pockets to act as the chief executive of this country. Neither he or his predecessor have the acumen or ability to act in the best interest of we the people.
I saw a report in a Japanese publication fearing that if President Trump wins, the USA will not help defend Japan (and the load will all be on Japan). With President Biden, they can be sure there would be no effective help.
Biden Lulled? NO! Bought! Almost everything going on right now is related, homosexuality and abortion being pushed on the public at every turn to reduce the American population, all the while the country is being flooded with illegals, classic Cloward and Piven strategy, overwhelm the system until it collapses and then install communism. The war in Ukraine has the purpose of bankrupting the US, depleting our military supplies and at the same time destroying Russia’s conventional military forces. The US will become a bankrupt third world country and Russia, unable to defend itself short of using Nukes on its own soil will be over run by China. China is buying land in America, has colonies in both Africa and South America. Our own EPA has destroyed our industrial base and now our factories are based in China, they take the money from selling us products and build up their Army. In 100 years there won’t be an America or a Russia or a Europe or any other people there will only be the planet of China!
if we don’t wake up and rid ourselves of the corrupt politicians and universities selling this country out, we are done! As for Russia, they are fighting the wrong enemy, I would rather see them, as impossible as it may seem, join NATO. As soon as their conventional forces are gone, so are they!
AMAC isn’t getting Chinese money like Oracle, Google, Disney, Apple, Nike, the NBA, or the Bidens. Maybe that’s why?
Seeds for WW3
When the election was subverted and Biden walked in, China took over our country. He’s on their payroll.
Well you can’t stand up to an enemy when they have paid you 30 million dollars. Appeasement is the only thing ole Joe knows. From Afghanistan to Iran to China. Russia attacked Ukraine because Putin knew ole Joe wouldn’t do nothing. What has been reached in all this? Europe is broke, America is broke. And our standing in the World has been turned down to zero. All our enemies are poised to attack America. 8 million people have entered America in the past 3 years. We don’t know who they are, where they are or what their intentions are. Our allies are pulling back their support. Hamas with the Houthis have effectively taken over the Red Sea. Again because of Ole Joe’s weakness. Should ole Joe be re-elected we are doomed. We will be fighting the Third World War here on American soil. Taiwan will be lost to China rule. O has reached his plan with the help of ole Joe. The installed puppet president has done his job.
I sure hope that Japan, at this point, is developing its own defenses at the same rate that we did during World War 2. Japan must act on their own behalf in becoming too strong to mess with.
It is so sad that Joe Biden is the one who is being used and blamed with the fall of our country. We should now be questioning who is actually responsible for this situation, I can name his family, Hunter and Jill for allowing him to be put in this position and PRETENDING he is the one who is calling the shots.
Next is the Democrat Party that is keeping up the illusion that this sad man, with loss of cognitive ability, is carrying the blame for THEIR lack of leadership. Talk about Elder Abuse 101. They are hoping to establish their own legacy, but hopefully the truth will out their dishonesty!
It is time to question ALL of our government that has allowed this to continue and not standing up to honor their oath and take responsibility of actually being leaders of The U.S.A.
Stop blaming an empty shell of a man as the culprit, start looking for the “real” culprits! I am tired of the “smoke and mirrors”. Who is really running our country?
The only thing that gets Biden’s attention is money and lots of it. And the ghost of Trump in Biden’s head.
Jackass Joe and Hunter still doing business with China. We should send both of them over there on a one way ticket.
Biden has a role model in China. Notice that the increase in those intrusive exercises near Taiwan coincides with when China’s boy Biden took office? Just like the southern border invasion here.
Joe Biden thinks “the China situation” is when his Visiting Angel gives him his cocoa in an unbreakable spill-proof sippy cup instead of a big boy one.
Biden is always brain dead so japan is no different
Not sure “false sense of security” is how I would describe Mr. Biden’s gross lack of awareness on foreign matters.
Every time these 2 guys talk hunter and the rest of the crime family get richer. How can we allow a crook, liar, tax cheating, anti-American stay in the most important office of our Republic?? We HAVE to save our children of there is NO HOPE.
Biden and administration are fools to allow China to direct them. Yet, we realize that this is to allow China to take over America; and this must be stopped.
Baden being alone the man hasn’t got enough sense to wipe his own butt he’s in a conscious state of lulled. Are a walking coma he’s been brain dead for many years. As to the threat from China it plays right into the liberal Democrats obsession with destroying the United States. And it gives another opportunity for America to disregard their allies and not support them in time of need. This country is not the America we grew up in or supported with our lives over the years it’s something we have no idea of what it’s turning into. Or I guess I should say we do have an idea of what’s turning into but we just don’t want to believe it.
Biden is a dangerous puppet whose every move is manipulated by his handlers
Biden’s “mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation” should be read,
“Mutual financial cooperation, peaceful surrender, and win-lose cooperation”. It sure would be nice to have some hard-hitting articles exposing Joe’s cooperation with conspirators to hand this country over to the communists.
Harris would put Biden’s diaper on backwards
Our weak president, Biden, has no clue how to deal with people like Xi Jinping. He has already corrupted his reputation and accepted bribes from this rival of our country and Xi knows that he has his thumb on Biden. China has only progressed their aggression since they are incentivized by our current government’s lack of strength. This should be a clear sign, as to how we deal with China in the future.
Biden isn’t “lulled” into anything. He’s simply doing the work of his master Xi Jinping.
Lulled? Give me a break, Bidumb doesn’t even know where he’s at most of the time. Everything he has done was for making money for the Bidum clan with no care about the American citizens that he promised to improve their life.
Don’t be surprised if Biden’s presidential library is located in Beijing.
You must mean the EXACT opposite position. You stay with ole Joe but don’t be surprised to find yourself under siege one day. Be prepared. There are millions that have an opposite view of the current administration. You are still the sheep following ole Joe blindly into the ravine.
So Biden, who’s been wrong on every major foreign policy issue for 50 years is suddenly right on this one?
Joe Biden isn’t worried about Communist China because he has allied himself to the Chinese.
Again, No one should be surprised as the Enemies of the USA take advantage of a WEAK administration.
This traitorous administration continues to do the wrong thing at the wrong time and lead us all into disaster. Sad to say but most people have turned a blind eye to the disaster that is this administration.
Are we on the verge of world War 3, because of the stupidity of the left , Biden and Obama has become more of a problem for America then anything else , I sure hope the people who voted for this fool realize the biggest mistake they have ever made.
Remember Biden doesn’t even remember what day it is
Is Biden related to Neville Chamberlin by any chance?
This is not surprising considering the several other ways Biden has acted about other militarily aggressive activities in the area, and especially about Xi having remotely controlled spy balloons flying over the U.S., and attempting to minimize our border crisis.
Ha! Biden does whatever Xi tells him to do.
Too bad you couldn’t get a picture of Xi passing Dementia Joe the payment envelope since “Bagman Hunter is off the route. Did he bow to Xi like Obama did ? This guy needs to trip down AF-1’s stairs with Cackles in front of him, then Mike Johnson can assume the Presidency ! He would be a safe place-holder for TRUMP in ’24. Whole lot better than Pelosi or Cackles !!
Well, we know who the paid troll is here!
2A.
So much war whoring propaganda. The “esteemed” author fails to mention the recently completed live fire drills the US and South Korea participated in just skirting North Korean air space and sea lanes. All the chest thumping nations do this crap. In the west these drills are usually glorified sales displays put on by the various military industrial establishment corporations in fascistic collaboration with their national government. In the eastern countries they are held as a “hey, mines pretty big too”, display.
Strange how Japan is warning anyone about China. China being the same nation that slaughtered millions of Chinese, witnesses of which still survive. Makes one understand why China will never allow a foreign military presence on Taiwan as Japan used that island as their “unsinkable aircraft carrier” in their lengthy war on China.
As Americans we need to stop looking at every nation we are competing with as being our enemies. If for once we would return to actually competing rather than going to a war footing we may return once again to being respected across the globe rather than despised.