President Joe Biden greeted Chinese President Xi Jinping, the leader of the nations most Americans now name as the greatest threat to the United States, with a warm, two-handed handshake Wednesday in California.
In a White House video posted to YouTube that some critics will undoubtedly point to as an example of federal government inefficiency, just over 46 minutes of a slide announcing the “greet” was followed by just over one minute of footage of Xi getting out of a car and walking with Biden into a building after waving briefly to reporters.
“President Biden, what’s your message to China today?” one reporter called out.
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Whatever it is, it’s more than the message he had for that reporter, whom he ignored as he turned and walked with Xi into the building.
Video taken from another angle, however, provided a better view of the actual meeting of the two world leaders.
A separate video began a few minutes later and showed the two leaders greeting each other across a wide table.
Is China a major threat to US national security?
Yes: 98% (57 Votes)
No: 2% (1 Votes)
“Well, Mr. President, it’s good to see you again,” Biden said in his first remarks, which he obviously read. “We’ve spend many hours together over the last 10 or 12 years, and to host you in the United States is a great honor and a pleasure.”
Biden listed a number of topics that he said were “critical” issues for the two nations to discuss, including climate change, counter-narcotics and the development of artificial intelligence.
Xi’s opening remarks were no less friendly (or unprepared). He also had a list of issues on hand, mostly economic — continuing to recover after the pandemic, a sluggish economy and rising protectionism.
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He also said that the China-U.S. relationship was “the most important bilateral relationship in the world.”
“For two large countries like China and the United States,” Xi said, “turning their back on each other is not an option.”
A Pew Research poll taken in July showed that 50 percent of Americans named China when asked an open-ended question about the nation posing the greatest threat to the U.S.
Only 17 percent of those polled named Russia, and 2 percent said it was North Korea.
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George Upper is the former Editor-in-Chief of The Western Journal and was a weekly co-host of "WJ Live," powered by The Western Journal. He is currently a contributing editor in the areas of faith, politics and culture. A former U.S. Army special operator, teacher and consultant, he is a lifetime member of the NRA and an active volunteer leader in his church. Born in Foxborough, Massachusetts, he has lived most of his life in central North Carolina.
George Upper, is the former editor-in-chief of The Western Journal and is now a contributing editor in the areas of faith, politics and culture. He currently serves as the connections pastor at Awestruck Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is a former U.S. Army special operator, teacher, manager and consultant. Born in Massachusetts, he graduated from Foxborough High School before joining the Army and spending most of the next three years at Fort Bragg. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in English as well as a Master's in Business Administration, all from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He and his wife life only a short drive from his three children, their spouses and his grandchildren. He is a lifetime member of the NRA and in his spare time he shoots, reads a lot of Lawrence Block and John D. MacDonald, and watches Bruce Campbell movies. He is a fan of individual freedom, Tommy Bahama, fine-point G-2 pens and the Oxford comma.
