OPINION:
The Biden administration proudly attended the Group of Seven summit with the message to other world leaders, “America is back.”
Yes, America is back – back to repeating the eight years spent under the Obama administration of leading from behind and putting American interests last.
There were many fist bumps, photo-ops, and camaraderie among the six leaders of the world’s richest nations, and why wouldn’t there be? Unlike under the Trump administration, where Germany was challenged on wanting to work with Russia to complete the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, or where France was questioned about its unfair trade practices, and where all leaders were harangued into contributing their fair share in the NATO alliance, President Biden was just there to go along and get along.
Diplomacy is back, the mainstream media cooed. America is well-liked again. But what good is being liked if we’re not respected? If American interests are not put at the forefront of all discussions and communiques?
The leftist, progressive, feel-good issue of climate change was front and center among the G-7 discussions. The G-7 leaders all agreed to spend $100 billion a year to help poorer countries cut their carbon emissions to help reduce global warming. The president of the United States pledged billions of U.S. taxpayer monies in this vein, while China continues to build coal-fired power plants at a rate that outpaces the rest of the world combined.
It’s all for show – and Mr. Biden got fleeced. Until China decides — or is pressured – into going green, there’s little the G-7 can do to truly address climate change. Coal remains at the core of China’s economy. In 2019, 58% of the country’s total energy consumption came from coal, helping to explain why China accounts for 28% of all global CO2 emissions.
Meanwhile, China will be happy to manufacture, sell and profit off of all the solar panels, wind turbines and electric car batteries that the U.S. needs to achieve Mr. Biden’s goal of zero carbon emissions, and are happy to see U.S. gas pipelines and coal plants shutter under Mr. Biden’s watch, so they can better compete in the world energy market.
This is the definition of putting America last: No tangible results will be achieved by supporting poorer countries to combat climate change, and taxpayer monies will surely be wasted, American energy workers will continue to lose their good-paying jobs, and our country will become more dependent on foreign nations for our energy needs.
Instead of confronting and trying to renegotiate better trade deals for the American public with the G-7 nations, Mr. Biden succumbed to lofty global interests. He agreed to promote globalism, especially among the least-developed and low-income developing countries. The trade language included in the G-7’s communique stated its goal of full modernization of the global trading system to support “the social and economic growth and development of these countries.”
What about standing up for American workers and jobs? What about achieving better trade deals for them that will keep manufacturing on U.S. soil, and result in higher wages and more profits for American workers and industry? Mr. Biden would rather sign on to a progressive wish-list authored by elitist bureaucrats than fight for the American public. Better to be popular, than to stand up for American interests.
Then comes Mr. Biden’s biggest cave of all: going soft on China. The final G-7 communique doesn’t specially call out Beijing for their human rights violations against the Uighurs, but briefly mentions China’s aggression in the East and South China Seas, and agrees to “consult on” China’s “challenging non-market policies and practices which undermine the fair and transparent operation of the global economy.”
Scary stuff there. China’s President Xi Jinping must be quaking in his boots.
Furthermore, the G-7 agreed to allow the World Health Organization to investigate the origins of COVID-19. Yes, the same WHO that praised China early last year for its transparency, gave out the faulty information there was no human-to-human transmission, was late to call COVID-19 a global emergency and condemned then-President Trump for shutting off travel to China. The same WHO that issued a report earlier this year saying the virus most likely originated from a wet market, scripted entirely from Chinese Communist Party notes, and wouldn’t allow independent U.S. scientists to join their commission.
The WHO surely won’t get to the bottom of the investigation, as it works hand-in-glove with the CCP, which is doing everything it can to cast blame elsewhere.
However, many nations such as France and Germany are worried about China – that going too tough on them in the G-7 communique language would jeopardize their trade deals with the communist state. Thus, the G-7 communique is only as strong as its weakest links, and Mr. Xi knows this. He also understands the Biden administration caved to liberal, globalist, group-think once again.
The days of “America First” are over. And our nation’s enemies — and allies – are all taking a deep breath and relaxing. For its best for them and their own countries interests, that America will happily fund international wish-lists and relinquish its ability to compete. No longer does the American president fight for his own constituents, because he’d rather be liked on the world stage. “American diplomacy” is back.
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