This is the consequence of having a weak leader. Biden has emboldened all of our adversaries. They have all started mobilizing in one way or another since he took office and China is no exception. They are still looking to take over Taiwan and this Afghanistan fiasco has only reaffirmed their belief that America is in a weakened state. So China took the opportunity to tell Taiwan that they are likely on their own if Afghanistan is the best we can do.
The Global Times, China’s state-run media posted the following on Twitter.
“From what happened in Afghanistan, those in Taiwan should perceive that once a war breaks out in the Straits, the island’s defense will collapse in hours and the US military won’t come to help. As a result, the DPP will quickly surrender.”
“Once a cross-straits war breaks out while the mainland seizes the island with forces, the U.S. would have to have a much greater determination than it had for Afghanistan, Syria, and Vietnam if it wants to interfere.”
But that’s not the worse of it China is already sweet-talking Afghanistan.
“The Chinese Communist Party under the head of President Xi Jinping is the first nation to acknowledge the new Taliban government. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday that “China respects the right of the Afghan people to independently determine their own destiny and is willing to continue to develop… friendly and cooperative relations with Afghanistan,” The Daily Beast reported.
Editor-in-chief of the Global Times, Hu Xijin, remarked that the hand-off between the US-backed government in Afghanistan and the Taliban was “even more smooth” than that which saw a transition between President Trump and President Biden.
The editorial in the Global Times cautions that “How Washington abandoned the Kabul regime particularly shocked some in Asia, including the island of Taiwan. Taiwan is the region that relies on the protection of the US the most in Asia, and the island’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities have made Taiwan go further and further down this abnormal path. The situation in Afghanistan suddenly saw a radical change after the country was abandoned by the US. And Washington just left despite the worsening situation in Kabul. Is this some kind of omen of Taiwan’s future fate?”
Biden did make us look incompetent. We could have handled the evacuation far better and would have had we had an actual leader in office that was fit for the job. Trump had plans for an evacuation where American civilians are prioritized, instead of the plan Biden enacted where he left thousands behind. Sadly with Biden at the helm, there is no telling how well we would do in defending an ally. We just failed on an epic scale at the far easier job of evacuating a country.