China: Biden Pushing Ukraine Crisis into ‘Nuclear War’

China’s state-run Global Times on Monday accused President Joe Biden of pushing the world closer to nuclear war by declaring Russian leader Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” after invading Ukraine.

The Global Times was unimpressed by White House efforts to spin Biden’s remarks away as a gaffe, or later as a personal expression of his deep “moral outrage” that has no bearing on U.S. foreign policy.

“No matter how well Biden’s propaganda machine works, it cannot downplay the fact that such a blunt statement at a sensitive time could further inflame the situation. This was unwise and irresponsible, reflecting a dire problem within U.S. policy-making: some politicians are taking their personal grievances to the national level,” the Chinese Communist paper wrote. 

No additional examples of such grievance-nationalizing were provided, but one suspects the editors were thinking about stern criticism of China’s actions from American politicians.

The Global Times and its correspondents mocked Biden for talking tough after his debacle in Afghanistan, which brought a 20-year effort to change the regime in a far smaller and poorer nation than Russia to a mournful conclusion.

The editorial went further and jeered that Americans are forced to deal with “soaring inflation and skyrocketing energy prices” while their government spends billions on “supporting Ukraine rather than on solving domestic problems.”

“Biden’s hostility cannot be reversed: It seems that his ultimate goal is to topple another nuclear power and overthrow its leadership. Many are seriously worrying that the Ukraine crisis will get out of control and escalate into a nuclear war, given that both sides are becoming more ferocious,” the Global Times warned.

A Ukrainian soldier holds a Next Generation Light Anti-tank Weapon (NLAW) that was used to destroy a Russian armoured personal carrier (APC) in Irpin, north of Kyiv, on March 12, 2022. (SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images)

“Will it be a shame for American politics if repeated ‘slips of the tongue’ by the country’s top leader trigger a crisis that the American people cannot afford?” the article concluded.

While China’s regime-controlled editorialists fret over whether Putin takes Biden’s latest ill-considered outburst seriously, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) pointed out on Sunday that Beijing is profiting handsomely from the Ukraine crisis, both financially and politically:

Far from backing away from an anti-Western position, top Chinese diplomats are pressing their case. Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng have made statements since the invasion blaming the U.S. for not considering Russia’s security concerns and denouncing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s eastward expansion. In China’s telling, the world should have sympathy for Ukraine not because it was attacked by Russia, but because it is the victim of a reckless U.S. bid to maintain geopolitical dominance.

According to Beijing, the lesson for small countries is don’t be used as a pawn. The U.S. will manipulate them into fighting proxy wars against its adversaries.

China’s main target is Asia. In its narrative, the region can avoid Europe’s fate if it resists Washington’s efforts to contain China. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has taken aim at the recently released U.S. strategy for the Indo-Pacific, which envisions a political and economic order free of Chinese coercion. Mr. Le warned that this strategy will “provoke trouble, put together closed and exclusive small circles or groups, and get the region off course toward fragmentation and bloc-based division.”

The WSJ suggested China did not really need to sell this message with the Ukraine crisis, since America’s partners in Asia and the Middle East “seem to prefer neutrality when confronted with authoritarian aggression.”

“China doesn’t need allies to support its aggressive plans. It merely needs nations to stay neutral, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has given China more confidence that most of the world will stay on the sidelines,” the WSJ concluded.

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