The Iron Lady of California

The Chinese ambassador to the United States, Qin Gang, stirred the alpine air in Aspen with predictable belligerence that startled the foreign policy mandarins of the Aspen Security Forum. Julia Ioffe of Puck News offers a compelling look inside the cloistered and clubby bubble, where the assertion of Chinese policy landed like a sneak attack between happy hour and free time, with a touch of trouble intruding upon the organized activities of the day.

The collective panic attack described by Ioffe is very telling with regard to China. It represents a great crisis in confidence among the small and influential group that has maintained its influence through 20 years of blundering during both Republican and Democratic administrations. The disasters in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya have had little deterrent effect for this group – one that maintains an enduring capacity to be constantly surprised by the assertion of national, cultural or religious forces that supersede green room niceties and conference etiquette. The Chinese ambassador was well briefed by a staffer who no doubt went to an American university. He dropped an “Abraham Lincoln” quote with a totalitarian twist to defend the hatcheting of freedom in Hong Kong and that threatens Taiwan.

This raises a fundamental question in American politics about American security – the global lynch pin to peace and prosperity. The world has been organized around American freedom and a totalitarian alternative for most of the last 80 years. The United States emerged as the preeminent global power at the end of the Second War, displacing the British Empire. President Franklin Roosevelt talked about his vision for the post-war world late into the night with Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King, his confidant and friend. FDR talked about what became the US-led global order. He talked about self-determination for colonized nations, free trade, human rights, freedom of speech, conscience, religion and democracy. He talked with him about the United Nations, collective security treaties and all of the systems that would avoid a Third World War.

What he dreamed and envisioned was the foundation for what became known as the “American Century.” It led directly to an unprecedented explosion of peace, liberation, prosperity and opportunity all over the world. It sparked the greatest period of human progress in human history. Roosevelt told King that he knew this era would not last forever. He said he just wanted it to last as long as everyone who was alive on the day the war was won was still alive. The youngest of those Americans is now 76 years old, and the generation that saved the world is nearly all gone. The hour has nearly arrived, and there is a direct challenge to the leadership of the United States and the free nations of the world.

The alternative is a dark one. It is a hybrid Chinese-Russian model in which human beings have no standing compared to the ambitions of the state and the party. Both nations are led by dictators for life who have no regard for human rights, freedom and dignity. They have told us exactly who they are and what they want for at least 20 years.

It’s time American leaders listen. It seems like a few are. More on that in a minute.

What should American policy be towards the menacing Chinese superpower and its Lincoln-quoting ambassador?

First, it should be the national policy of the United States to remain the world’s preeminent military, scientific, research, economic and innovation power. That means the United States should partner with allied nations to build an economic bloc that drives the global economy for the next 100 years. The alliances should be built on shared values, interests and a permanent commitment to human dignity. The free nations of the world are infinitely richer and more powerful than their blustering autocratic competitors.

Second, the United States should be clear that, together with its security partners, it will remain the world’s dominant military power. This means on land, at sea, in the air, in space and cyberspace. The addition of Sweden and Finland to NATO has made it – already the world’s most powerful alliance – even stronger. The ineptitude of the Russian military in Ukraine and the performance of its criminal army should give the Chinese ambassador pause. The American military is battle hardened and the fight he seems to relish over Taiwan would put the Chinese Navy into direct conflict with the U.S. Navy.

The Chinese ambassador seems to have an interest in American history. He would be well advised to study up on the U.S. Navy. The oldest ship in the American fleet is also the oldest floating ship in the world. Her hull was lined by Paul Revere, and she was named by George Washington. She is the USS Constitution and she is 33-0. Today, she is commanded by a woman captain, Billie J. Farrell. The world’s most powerful Navy flies the American flag, and belligerent Chinese officials should remember what Admiral Yamamoto observed as his peers celebrated the destruction of the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. He said that he feared all that they had accomplished was to wake the “sleeping giant” The admiral had time to ponder his accuracy on his way to a watery grave, after being shot out of the sky by American planes waiting in ambush after American code breakers cracked the unbreakable Japanese code.

The Chinese, like all predator nations, smell the fear and nervousness of their prey. The Chinese ambassador thus has a distorted view of America because the Americans he knows are the ones Julia Ioffe writes about in her story. The herd moved from the swamp to a high alpine meadow, but they are the same people.

Enter the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.

Nancy Pelosi is going to Taiwan. Since American policy has been architected around the Chinese ego and avoiding their temper tantrums, the Biden White House has tried to deter Nancy Pelosi from going, as opposed to the Chinese from threatening. The tough-as-nails Speaker delivered a priceless response to the White House dissuasions. She wondered aloud if someone was worried about the Chinese shooting down her plane. The historic American figure will land in Taiwan as a symbol of American power, pluralism and democracy.

The Chinese may not like it, and that’s too bad. There is nothing they can do about it except start a naval war against the most powerful nation on Earth. They will lose that war, while all of humanity suffers. Chinese belligerence must be met with American strength and resolve. The failure to do so guarantees conflict.

The lessons of history are clear when it comes to the causes of aggression. Wars occur when the belligerent believes the cost is worth paying or the goals are achievable. Deterrence requires a relationship with reality and that is what is missing in Aspen, according to Julia Ioffe. Like I said before, there was a flicker of good news, a sign of a pulse, if you will, from America’s elected leaders. For a brief moment, a Republican Senator stood up and offered support to the Democratic Speaker. Senator Ben Sasse, apparently freed to return to his promise following his long captivity during the Trump years said this:

He couldn’t be more correct about the need to end the feebleness. That’s why Pelosi’s visit to Taipei is so important. She is the opposite of feeble. Her appointment of the January 6 Select Committee was the singularly most decisive act in defence of American democracy since 2015. The result has been devastating for the extremist cause and Donald Trump. None of it would have happened without Speaker Pelosi.

Her visit to Taiwan isn’t a provocation. It’s a reminder. It’s a reminder to the Chinese about power, American power.

President Biden doesn’t want the Speaker to go. That is disappointing. After the Saudi fist bump and supplications before the murdering Crown Prince on the eve of the Saudi-backed, Trump-embraced LIV golf tour, the White House should understand that images of American weakness can only be erased with pictures of American strength. The Chinese understand that. They won’t sit slack jawed and surprised when an American leader defends America’s interests. What they will see is a pillar of American strength, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Her name is Nancy Pelosi, and during this small and rotten era, she has done nothing but get bigger.