Biden hijacks world with Ukraine dragnet: China Daily editorial

It seems that it has become a compulsive habit for the Joe Biden administration to say one thing while doing another.

A group of senior officials from the US Department of Commerce visited Beijing and Shanghai last week as part of an effort to lay the groundwork for a potential trip to China by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo later this year. But even as they were doing so, the Department of Commerce imposed export controls on 12 Chinese companies on Wednesday, along with a dozen of entities from some other countries, for their alleged support of Russia's military and defense industries.

In February, when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was preparing for his scheduled trip to China, which was unilaterally canceled by Washington on the pretext of the so-called Chinese spy balloon that it allowed to be hyped up to an insane level by the China hawks, the US also sanctioned five Chinese companies citing the same reason, without providing any substantial evidence.

The US' moves, as the Chinese side responded on both occasions, are "outright bullying". Its sanctions on Russia "have no basis in international law and are not authorized by the United Nations Security Council". They are a form of "long-arm jurisdiction" that "seriously damages the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises and affects the security and stability of the global supply chain". The US has blacklisted more than 400 entities from other countries for their alleged connections with Russia over the past year, a convenient justification for it to hobble the competitors of US companies in key sectors.

The Biden administration's double standard is self-evident in the harsh sanctions it imposes on those it thinks support Moscow, and its own intense efforts to provide Kyiv with support.

It has always been part of the US geopolitical strategy to snare China in its Ukraine dragnet.

In upholding so-called US values and interests the Biden administration is trying to force a square peg into a round hole. Rather than its stated endeavor of "advancing a world that is peaceful, secure, stable, and with more opportunity", the administration has given free rein to warmongers, China hawks and selfish politicians to hijack its agenda at home and abroad to such a degree that its diplomacy is nothing more than a pacifier for the domestic dogfight.

What the US is trying to do is to sever the connections between major countries that have been formed in economic globalization. However, Washington will only find itself cornered at last by its own weaponizing of trade and technology, as well as its own attempts to divide the world according to its own values, as it is acting against the trend of the times and counter to aspirations of people around the world for peace and stability.