Allies Wonder If They Can Count on America as Imbroglio Engulfs Congress and Exposes Weakness in Foreign Policy

The imbroglio in the House exposes a weakness in American foreign policy. Who can trust American assurances of military support in a crisis when all the promises risk falling apart, if not at the hands of an obstreperous faction in Congress, then in the 2024 elections for president and a new Congress?That’s the question confronting leaders of the two Northeast Asia powers, Japan and South Korea, that President Biden has drawn together in a de facto alliance against North Korea and Communist China. It’s also an issue in Taiwan, which Mr. Biden has repeatedly pledged to defend against China while hewing to the longstanding policy that it’s still an off-shore, independent Chinese province.To the south, Mr. Biden has pulled the Philippines more firmly than ever into the American orbit, warming up — at the White House in May — the president, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., son of the late Philippines dictator. The Americans flew Bongbong’s father into exile at the climax of the People Power Revolution of 1986. Down under, Australia anchors the line of friendly nations as a member of Aukus, the acronym for Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, bound in a grouping that China excoriates as crucial to the American policy of “containment.” For China, the best hope for breaking the American defensive network lies in the fragmentation of support for American aims in Washington. The notion that Congress could jettison the delicate diplomacy involved in building new alliances and fortifying old ones has got to be as welcome to President Xi as it is to President Putin, praying the Americans will tire of funding Ukrainian forces. The Chinese are loving it. An analyst at the China Institute of International Studies, Zhang Tengjun, likens the furor in the House to “a host of demons dancing in riotous revelry.” A Chinese Communist mouthpiece, Global Times, quoted Fudan University’s Wei Zongyu as predicting “a death struggle” that “may lead to a deadlock or even a civil war” in which “the foundation of democratic politics will be destroyed.” How could the president of such a powerful country be stymied by the refusal of his legislature to approve funding for America’s already depleted armed forces and for military aid programs around the world?“It’s a real problem,” Ankit Panda, with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, tells the Sun. “Allies would like the United States to be more predictable, both internally and externally.” At issue is the basic security of America’s friends and allies throughout Asia. President Yoon, standing up against threats from North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, has reversed the policies of his liberal predecessor, Moon Jae-in. Mr. Yoon warns of what would befall Mr. Kim were he to make good on his threats against the South. Already underfunded, the American Navy would have to yield to Chinese demands that its ships stay clear of the East Sea between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland and cease showing the flag in the South China Sea, which China insists belongs to China. Washington, without the necessary funding, might just as well forget about going on with military exercises with the Philippines’ pathetically weak navy and coast guard. Plus, despite all the goodwill generated by Mr. Biden’s recent visit to Hanoi, we would have to stop negotiating with Vietnamese in need of sophisticated weaponry to stand up to Chinese looking for natural gas in Vietnamese waters. The Chinese and Russians, as it is, have got to be delighted by the pickle created by Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, accusing India of plotting the assassination of a Sikh independence terrorist on Canadian soil. The Americans face the tricky problem of courting India, a member of “The Quad,” a grouping that also includes Australia and Japan, while getting along with their old friend, good neighbor, and staunch NATO ally, Canada. That takes diplomatic sleight of hand, especially since Indians suspect American intelligence of passing along the word of India’s purported role in the killing. What could be better for China, nibbling away at India’s northern borders for years, than for the Americans to be unable to deliver on some of the promises held out for Prime Minister Modi, whom Mr. Biden hosted at the White House, including half a billion dollars worth of military financing? What about American aid for India’s arch foe, Pakistan, counting on Washington for nearly as much, including support for American F16s. China, meanwhile, provides Pakistan with still more aid while building a road over the Himalayas all the way to the Arabian Sea. “The nihilism of a small number of congressional Republicans is an embarrassment but not a major problem,” a former American diplomat in Asia, David Straub, tells the Sun. “Sophisticated foreign observers understand that most Americans and even most Republican senators and congressmen support the basic U.S. foreign policy.”Yet George Washington, in his farewell address, issued a warning about which we may be hearing in the coming season. Said George: “Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice?”

Allies Wonder If They Can Count on America as Imbroglio Engulfs Congress and Exposes Weakness in Foreign Policy

More from the New York Sun

‘Ulster American’ Is a Bawdy Send Up of Progressive Pieties — and an Irreverent Inquiry Into Irishness

Republican Congressman Calls for Tucker Carlson To Be Prosecuted for ‘Treason’ for Pre-War Contact With Iranians

More from the New York Sun

‘Ulster American’ Is a Bawdy Send Up of Progressive Pieties — and an Irreverent Inquiry Into Irishness

Republican Congressman Calls for Tucker Carlson To Be Prosecuted for ‘Treason’ for Pre-War Contact With Iranians

American Socialists To Join New Cuba Aid Flotilla Despite Hints of Negotiations Aimed at Ousting Communist Leadership

Trump’s Pared-Back Tariffs Return to Trade Court Under New Legal Rationale

North Korean Leader’s Daughter, 13, Shows Up at Missile-Firing Exercise Looking All the More Like His Heir Apparent

Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Unfaithful Hollywood Adaptation

Will Hollywood Bite Its Tongue at the Oscars?

Reuters Claims To Have Unmasked Banksy After Extensive Investigation