Japan Institute for National Fundamentals

If the Chinese Communist Party regime gains global supremacy, free and human civilizations would disappear from the earth. How to confront Communist China? This is the point attracting global attention most regarding the two U.S. presidential candidates.

Democratic presidential nominee Joseph Biden served as vice president in the Obama administration. At a joint press conference with then U.S. President Barack Obama in the United States in 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared that China reached an important agreement with the U.S. to jointly fight against cybercrimes and that China had no intention to militarize the facility construction on the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, however, Communist China’s intellectual property theft, including cyberattacks, has increased further since then. China’s militarization of the South China Sea has been making progress. The Chinese leader has made fun of the Obama administration including Biden. Incumbent Republican President Donald Trump said that if Biden wins this November's presidential election, China will "own" the U.S.

Biden failing to mention how to counter China

Biden is responsible for assessing the Chinese actions and clarifying how to specifically counter China. Nevertheless, he has yet to do so and refused to accept questions from critical media for fear of gaffes.

It makes no sense to hear any general comment from Biden. In his memoir, he frankly admits his having been told that “he sells the sizzle but is short on the steak.” Biden has thus been criticized for failing to act in line with his excellent speeches.

The Trump administration has implemented specific measures even though they are controversial. They include punitive tariffs on Chinese imports, sanctions on Chinese tech firms, the enhancement of “Freedom of Navigation” Operations, the promotion of U.S.-Taiwan relations, and tougher actions on Communist China spies and collaborators. President Trump has steadily delivered the steak, irrespective of whether the steak was properly done or not. Nobody doubts that he can deliver.

At the Congress, Republican allies of Trump have come up with tough measures against China. Conservative Republicans such as Senators Marco Rubio from Florida and Ted Cruz from Texas initiated bills for sanctions over Hong Kong and Uyghur suppression and enhanced U.S. relations with Taiwan.

On August 10, Communist China imposed sanctions on six U.S. lawmakers over Hong Kong, who are all Republicans. Earlier, Beijing banned four U.S. politicians over Uyghur, who are also all Republicans, from entering China. Ohio Senator Rob Portman, also Republican, as chairman of the Senate Investigation Subcommittee, has led the prosecution of suspected spies regarding Communist China’s 1,000-person plan for technological acquisition.

Meanwhile, Biden’s running mate Kamala Harris, a Senator from California, has made no remarkable statements concerning China.

Unseen leadership

Biden, as the Democratic Party leader and as a man who served many years at the Senate, should exercise a greater leadership than Trump at the Congress. But he has not done so. Harris, though having joined the Democratic presidential race, repeated her compromise with radical leftists and return to the middle of the road, causing conflicts within her camp. She eventually withdrew from the race before the primary began. Her leadership is even weaker than Biden’s.

At present, I can’t but say that Biden is a hopeless known and Harris is a hopeless unknown.

Yoichi Shimada is a Planning Committee member, Japan Institute for National Fundamentals, and a professor at Fukui Prefectural University.