More On: Biden's 'Embarrassing' trip
China: Biden's 'Embarrassing' trip shows that the U.S. influence in the Middle East is 'declining'
On Monday, Democratic American President Joe Biden was made fun of by China's state media outlets for what Beijing called a 'lukewarm' and 'embarrassing' trip to the Middle East that failed to produce any apparent accords or advantages for the United States.
Prior to meeting with King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, Biden spent the previous week traveling to Israel and Saudi Arabia. Since Biden had promised to make Saudi Arabia a "pariah" as president in response to the horrible murder and dismemberment of Islamist dissident Jamal Khashoggi, his visit to Saudi Arabia, a longtime ally of the United States in the area, was particularly divisive.
Additionally, according to reports, Biden was in the region to urge Riyadh to boost oil output in order to potentially reduce American gas prices. Saudi officials denied having the capacity to do so. In an editorial headlined "Why I'm Going to Saudi Arabia" that appeared in the Washington Post before to his trip, Biden refuted the claim that he was there to ask for more oil from the country. The piece condemned Russia for escalating the eight-year-old conflict in Ukraine that started in February but did not address why Biden was traveling to Saudi Arabia.
Biden was denounced on Monday by the state-run Xinhua News Agency in China for reportedly attempting to "cajole" Middle Eastern nations into acting in a way that would benefit the United States.
No matter how the U.S. side pleaded and prodded, the countries in the region only gave tepid responses, according to Xinhua. "Biden failed in his attempt to forge a regional military alliance against Iran and failed in his attempt to persuade Saudi Arabia to take quick action to increase its oil supply."
Xinhua asserted that America was merely "unwelcome" in the Middle East and that regional leaders' reactions to Biden's visit were "lukewarm."
“Why? The main cause, according to Xinhua, is that Washington's hegemonic ideology and confrontational strategy run counter to the region's ambitions for growth, collaboration, and peace. The Middle Eastern people are more aware of its true identity as a "troublemaker."
In a story published on Sunday, The Global Times, a Communist Party tabloid in China, quoted unnamed pro-regime Chinese "experts" and came to the conclusion that Biden's visit had accomplished nothing and that any attempts to demonize China or Russia had failed.
According to Chinese analysts, Biden's journey to the Middle East was "embarrassing" and "fruitless," the Global Times reported. The Global Times specifically cited America's respect for human rights - unlike rogue states like China and Russia - as a "insurmountable obstacle" in relations with brutally repressive monarchies like Saudi Arabia's. This is in contrast to Xinhua, which claimed that Biden's failure was due to alleged "hegemonic" thinking.
The US's support for human rights and its philosophy, according to experts, are impassable barriers that have bred deep mistrust and animosity between the US and Middle Eastern nations, the Global Times speculated. Furthermore, they are becoming less trustful of Washington's "self-interest first" diplomacy.
China, in contrast, "won't preach to Middle Eastern countries what to do and what principles they should adopt, and won't throw sanctions on them," the anonymous Chinese expert said.
The Global Times came to the conclusion that America's regional influence was "obviously waning."
Perhaps the most oppressive totalitarian dictatorship in the world is China. The Chinese Communist Party is actively committing genocide against the Muslim ethnic groups of occupied East Turkistan, imprisoning up to three million people there in concentration camps, mass-sterilizing women, and enslaving Muslim men. This fact was left out of The Global Times' article.
Mecca and Medina, two of Islam's holiest locations, are located in Saudi Arabia. Muslims are required by their religion to do the hajj, also known as the pilgrimage to Mecca, at least once in their lifetimes. Despite holding a position of leadership within the religion, Saudi leaders have neglected to denounce China's slaughter of Muslims. To appease its trading partner China, Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, has detained everyone who dared to bring up the atrocities that took place within its borders.
No information from Biden's contacts with Saudi officials suggests that he and King Salman or his successor talked about the Chinese extermination of Muslims. Additionally, Biden is said to have avoided addressing Riyadh's severe persecution of non-Muslims, homosexual people, or women. Instead, the most of the attention has been on Biden's assertion that he brought up the murder of Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor who was murdered and dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
“I indicated I thought he was. He said he was not personally responsible for it and he took action against those who were responsible,” Biden told reporters following his meeting with Mohammed bin Salman, claiming he told the prince that he believed he had ordered Khashoggi’s killing. Bin Salman has stated that the killing was unsanctioned behavior by Saudi underlings and claimed all involved parties were arrested.
Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir told PBS this weekend that, while he attended the meeting where this conversation allegedly happened, he “didn’t hear that exchange.”
“He brought — he mentioned the issue of Jamal Khashoggi, and he said that this is an issue that has generated a lot of interest and concern in the U.S. Congress and among the American public,” al-Jubeir explained. “And that he understood — he knew what some of your best position was, and the Crown Prince indicated that Saudi, we did every civilized country would do, we investigated, we charged against those who committed this crime.”
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