The Chinese Communist Party Is Trying to Use All Means to Pressure Biden

Then-President-elect Joe Biden (R) speaks at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Delaware, on Jan. 15, 2021. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Commentary

In the new year, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has taken several actions to openly provoke conflict—in an attempt to pressure the incoming Biden administration.

North Korean regime leader Kim Jong Un recently threatened that the country would expand its nuclear arsenal, citing the United States’ “hostile” policies. He also disclosed a list of high-tech weapons systems that were being developed.

Four years ago, Biden was the vice president. Now, the North Korean nuclear issue appears to be back in Biden’s hands. The Chinese regime is North Korea’s biggest backer politically and economically. Eager to pressure Biden and improve the China-U.S. relationship, the CCP has once again played the same trick with North Korea, trying to force Biden to negotiate with it as soon as possible, and, of course, hoping to defuse China-U.S. tensions.

Iran, which also is driven by the CCP, is ready to help the CCP get out of trouble. On Jan. 4, Iran announced that it increased its uranium enrichment to 20 percent. Authorities also said it seized a South Korean oil tanker.

On Jan. 6, Chinese state-run media Xinhua published an article titled “Is Iran’s current policy going anywhere?” The article publicly revealed the relationship between the CCP and Iran. The article said that Iran’s former top Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by U.S. forces about a year ago, “should not be forgotten, and Iran must retaliate.”

It also stated that “Iran wants to exert pressure on the Biden administration by increasing the abundance of uranium enrichment.”

The CCP not only tried to tell Iran what to do, but also tried to make decisions for Biden. The article further added that “Biden and his team have repeatedly stated publicly that the United States will return to the Iran nuclear deal.” President Donald Trump announced the United States’ withdrawal from the deal—which limited Iran’s uranium enrichment levels—in May 2018, calling it a “one-sided” transaction.

Biden’s pick for national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has previously said he wished the 2015 deal could be salvaged.

The Xinhua article called the 2015 deal a diplomatic “political legacy of [former U.S. President Barack] Obama, with President-elect Biden as his deputy.”

Then, on Jan. 6, a South Korean delegation headed to Iran to seek the release of the tanker and its crew members.

But a Jan. 8 Xinhua article defended Iran and claimed that the South Korean tanker did “repeatedly violate laws and regulations related to the marine environment.”

The article also claimed that the South Korean delegation was not in Tehran to discuss the tanker but the issue of “frozen Iranian assets and funds in South Korea.”

The article argued that South Korea should not freeze those funds to comply with U.S. sanctions, and said South Korean authorities froze Iranian assets under “empty pretexts.”

These CCP tactics not only put pressure on Biden, but also on South Korea. While South Korea doesn’t seem to completely align with the United States, it holds a cold attitude toward the CCP. Now, because of the North Korean nuclear issue and Iran’s seizure of South Korean oil tankers, South Korea has become another target for the CCP to pressure.

The Chinese regime itself is also taking action. The South China Morning Post, citing satellite images, reported that on Dec. 25 last year, China’s biggest warplane had landed on Fiery Cross Reef in the disputed South China Sea region. Meanwhile, on Jan. 4, Chinese regime leader Xi Jinping issued a mobilization order, calling on the military to begin “focusing on preparing for war.”

The Chinese military’s official website stated on Jan. 9 that in the early hours of Jan. 8, a Chinese soldier at the China-India border “lost himself due to the darkness and the complicated terrain.” The website stated that “a few Indian media exaggerated the matter,” and that India should “hand over lost personnel to China, and create positive factors to the current situation on the China-India border.”

How can a Chinese soldier be “lost at the border due to the darkness and the complicated terrain?” The CCP’s rhetoric is obviously too far-fetched. Given the Party’s strict control of the army, a soldier being left outside the camp alone is impossible. The more likely scenario could be that the soldier was sent out to scout out the other side, and then was captured at the border.

This suggests that the CCP is once again trying to make trouble on the Indian border, and is now trying to create tensions.

The Chinese regime lashed out against South Korea, and it will also do that with India. Both are key U.S. allies.

After 53 former lawmakers and pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong were arrested on charges of violating Beijing’s national security law, the European Union called for their immediate release.

On Jan. 8, Xinhua published an article titled “the Europeans have no right to interfere in China’s internal affairs.” The Party may think it is about to settle its issues with the United States, so it no longer needs to be polite to the EU.

As Biden’s inauguration day approaches, the CCP is eager to strike the United States from all sides. But it remains to be seen whether its actions will backfire.

Shen Zhou, a former design engineer for military vehicles, is a China observer who has paid close attention to the Chinese regime’s military expansion over the years. He started contributing to The Epoch Times in 2020.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.