As the Biden administration readies for the president’s in-person meeting with China’s Xi Jinping, one foreign policy expert explained why the gathering shouldn’t be happening in the first place.
"The reality is, whether we have established mechanisms of communication or not, China talks to us when it wants to talk, despite established channels, and it doesn't talk when it doesn't want to talk," Gatestone Institute senior fellow Gordon Chang said on "Mornings with Maria" Monday.
"And clearly, we are in a case right now where we are fueling their military buildup, which is configured to kill Americans," he continued. "This is just morally and strategically wrong."
Chang weighed the impact of President Biden’s meeting this month with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco.
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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, during a recent press conference, characterized the meeting as a space for "intense diplomacy" and "tough conversation."
But the policy expert argued for a complete decoupling from China, warning that the nation is only open to U.S. discussions because their "economy is not growing at the pace it has over decades."
"Talking about arms control with China in this theoretical sense is not bad. But the point is, you have to have an agreement that is verifiable," Chang noted. "China has always refused to talk about the size of its arsenal, and an unverifiable agreement, which the arms control community obviously would love, is not in the best interests of the United States or the international community."
Further reacting to Biden’s upcoming meeting, Chang called it "just insane," claiming that the administration isn’t ready to confront the "really horrible reality" of China’s geopolitics.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will first meet with China’s vice premier ahead of the presidential gathering after recently publishing a Washington Post op-ed suggesting there is a way for America and China to work and compete with one another.
"Our goal is not to trigger a disorderly, wholesale private sector pullback from China... there is an important distinction between diversifying our supply chains and decoupling our economics," Yellen wrote. "Diverse supply chains are necessary in a volatile world; decoupling our economies would be economically disastrous and run counter to our national interests."
Answering the question of what he’d consider to be "success" coming out of the bilateral meeting, Chang said it would be "if it didn’t take place" at all.
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"Unfortunately, we have deferred taking actions against China that are absolutely necessary because we think we can talk to the Chinese, which is really what you see in Janet Yellen's op-ed and what you see from administration officials talking about this meeting that's supposed to take place," the Gatestone Institute senior fellow pointed out.
"So I think it would be in our interest if it didn't take place," Chang added. "Xi Jinping runs a genocidal regime. We should be arresting the guy for genocide and crimes against humanity. We shouldn't be inviting him onto American soil."
FOX News’ Taylor Penley contributed to this report.
