RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/nov/12/biden-confuses-cambodia-colombia-second-time-durin/

President Biden confused Cambodia for Colombia for the second time, while meeting with Southeast Asian leaders this weekend in Phnom Penh.

Mr. Biden thanked Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday, but referred to him as the leader of South American country Colombia.

“I want to thank the prime minister for Colombia’s leadership as ASEAN chair,” Mr. Biden said.

Prior to his trip to Egypt for the COP27 climate conference, Mr. Biden referred to Cambodia as Colombia again, though he quickly corrected himself the first time.

“I’m heading down to — first of all, going to Cairo for the environmental effort, then heading over to Colombia and then — I mean Cambodia,” he told reporters before he departed.

Mr. Biden is spending the weekend meeting with Southeast Asian leaders to work on coordinating an international effort towards climate change, global inflation, the war in Ukraine and other issues.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-policy-starts-with-taiwan-biden-xi-jinping-asia-indo-pacific-tpp-ipef-ccp-taipei-strategic-decision-katherine-tai-11668362330?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

When President Biden sits down Monday with Xi Jinping ahead of the G-20 summit, he’ll face a confident and increasingly aggressive Chinese President. Who knows what Mr. Xi will conclude about the aging American president, but there’s no doubt he will probe U.S. resolve on Taiwan.

Mr. Xi comes to the meeting having been given a historic third term by the Chinese Communist Party. Meanwhile, the U.S. recently concluded what it called “productive” meetings with Taipei over trade-related issues. Mr. Xi opposes closer U.S. ties with the island democracy.

The decision to pursue these trade negotiations is welcome. But the context is that this was a sop to Taiwan for the Biden Administration’s decision to exclude it from the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework that the President announced in May. A bipartisan group of 52 senators and 200 House Members wrote separate letters urging Taiwan’s inclusion.

IPEF is a watered down version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that Barack Obama signed in 2016 but President Trump withdrew from in one of his worst strategic decisions. IPEF is intended to shore up allies in the region by creating a rules-based community based on shared objectives.

China isn’t included because it isn’t a good-faith player, and the hope is that IPEF helps shield our friends from China’s bullying. Australia suffered when China, angered by its call for an honest investigation into the origin of Covid, retaliated by restricting Australian exports such as wine, coal and lobster.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19110/biden-talks-china-prepares-war

The meeting, as crucial as everyone believes it will be, should not occur. It is long past time for America to stop talking with the Chinese regime and start imposing costs for dangerous and other unacceptable behavior.

Talking sounds as if it should work but in fact has produced horrible results, for more than three decades. In short, dialogue enables China to buy time and often run out the clock.

Biden as president has already had five phone or video calls with Xi, so by now it should be clear what his red lines are. Moreover, on any day, People’s Daily lists them.

[T]he Chinese are not real believers in the importance of dialogue; they break it off whenever they feel it is to their advantage.

[D]uring summits presidents often convey warnings, seek understanding, or propose joint action. “There is no reason to think Xi Jinping is prepared to seek understanding or would take constructive joint action,” he said. “It also is extremely unlikely that he believes or respects words of warning from the Biden administration. Given that, a side meeting on the margins of the G20 is pointless or counterproductive.” — Steve Yates, chairman of the China Policy Initiative of the America First Policy Institute, to Gatestone, November 2022.

It is time… for America to get ready for the war that is coming. That means, among other things, bolstering those defending free societies, not emboldening those intent on attacking them.

“Refusing to speak is what children do when they are angry,” the Economist states. No, refusing to speak is what leaders do when speaking for decades has created one of the most dangerous moments in history.

President Joe Biden will meet with Chinese ruler Xi Jinping on November 14 in Bali, Indonesia, on the sidelines of the G20 Summit. The talks will be, as Gideon Rachman wrote, “the first global summit of the second cold war.”

The meeting, as crucial as everyone believes it will be, should not occur. It is long past time for America to stop talking with the Chinese regime and start imposing costs for dangerous and other unacceptable behavior.