Chinese Spy Balloon Above Western U.S.

Before it was downed off the South Carolina coast by U.S. fighter aircraft on Saturday, the balloon was provocative enough to cause Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a much-anticipated trip to Beijing. But it was also clumsy enough to symbolize China’s immense capacity to blunder — a tendency that President Biden’s team has lately exploited, to devastating effect.

Two years ago, when Biden assumed office, China believed that it was overtaking the United States technologically, intimidating it militarily, and winning the race for global respect and popularity against an exhausted, divided America. Today, in a remarkable turnaround, China is the country that veers between covid-19 lockdowns and casual sacrifice of elders, between clobbering its real estate sector and coddling it, between persecuting its entrepreneurial champions and promising to make nice.

On the foreign policy side, meanwhile, the Biden team has inflicted a series of humiliations on its chief rival.

Start with the semiconductor embargo on China, announced last October by the Commerce Department. This involved a calculated risk: If U.S. allies refused to collaborate, China would import the equipment necessary to produce its own advanced semiconductors, leaving it stronger and more self-sufficient. But on Jan. 27, the administration reportedly secured the backing of the two most important semiconductor equipment exporters, Japan and the Netherlands. China’s ability to pursue artificial intelligence and other advanced military technologies will be curbed.

Next, consider India. Four days after the semiconductor deal, national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with his Indian counterpart and announced a series of ambitious defense and technology partnerships, from quantum computing to more conventional weapons such as jet engines and artillery. The goal is to reduce India’s reliance on Russian armaments and draw it into the U.S. military-industrial complex. That, in turn, will reinforce the Quad, an Asian proto-NATO that also includes two other nations that Biden is helping to rearm, Japan and Australia.

Hot on the heels of the India deal, the White House secured a victory in the Philippines. At the end of the Cold War, the Philippines closed U.S. military bases on its territory, and a partial reopening in 2014 was derailed when Manila opted to make nice with China. But on Thursday, after assiduous prodding by the Biden team, the Philippines expanded the number of sites to which the U.S. military has access from five to nine. That will enhance the United States’ ability to respond to Chinese provocations in the South China Sea — including, in the most extreme scenario, an attack on Taiwan.