China’s Snub of US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin Is Our Problem, and Beijing’s
Commentary
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has repeatedly requested, since Biden’s presidency, a meeting with China’s top military officer, only to be rebuffed, according to information revealed by U.S. defense officials in a May 21 Financial Times report. Beijing’s snub of Mr. Austin is being interpreted by some, optimistically, as a petty bureaucratic rivalry. However, the dispute indicates dangerously self-defeating behavior on the part of both Beijing and Washington D.C., just as military tensions are increasing between the United States and allies on one side, and China and its allies, on the other.
The Biden foreign policy team
feature
A guide to the Biden administration’s first moves and initial set of senior officials.
By Bob Silverman
(May 20, 2021 / Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security) Interest in the new U.S. foreign policy team in Israel and elsewhere in the region is strong and growing, following the latest Israeli-Palestinian violence and Biden administration responses. What follows is a guide to the group and to some of the individuals in it, with a focus on their impact on U.S. policy.
President Biden’s foreign policy people are members in good standing of the Washington foreign policy establishment. This establishment is composed of like-minded former government officials, Democrats, Republicans and independents. They sit in office suites throughout Washington, D.C., and work as lobbyists, strategic advisers on government affairs, consultants, lawyers, industry association officials and think tank scholars, with an occasional investment banker fro
A Most Admired Diplomat, Gone Corporate
Nicholas Burns, Bidenâs likely ambassador to China, is entangled in tech and the arms business.
Burns held several corporate roles while advising the Biden campaign last year.
China will affect every aspect of President Bidenâs approach to the world. He is expected to nominate diplomat R. Nicholas Burns as ambassador to help him navigate the administrationâs biggest global challenge. Burns is respected by Democrats and Republicans alike, and in contrast to some of the other strange names floated as ambassadors, like Rahm Emanuel for Japan and Morgan Stanley vice chairman Tom Nides for Israel. But even this widely admired career civil servant fits the pattern of Biden hiring diplomats turned business consultants.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, joined by the Presidential Cabinet members, pose for a Cabinet portrait Thursday, April 1, 2021, in the Grand Foyer of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz). By Adam Schultz - The White House, Public Domain, Link
Laurence H. Shoup is a California author and activist. He is the author of five books, including
The U.S. working class, led by people of color, has, at least temporarily, defeated the criminal Trumpian regime and the specter of the consolidation of gangster neofascism. Among its many crimes, this racist regime tried to overturn the results of a U.S. national election. Let us turn to an analysis of the new Joe Biden regime and the personnel and policies it is likely to follow, especially on the all-important questions of the climate crisis and U.S. grand strategy toward China.
Slew of national security nominees announced The Pentagon continues to flesh out its officials with new nominees. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) WASHINGTON The Biden administration continues to flesh out its national security nominees, with four new Pentagon nominees and a pair of top state nominees named Friday afternoon. After a three month stretch with no nominations, the White House has now announced its intent to nominate 12 Pentagon officials in the last 20 days. It has also fleshed out other top national security jobs at both the Departments of State and Energy. The nominees announced Friday:
Brenda “Sue” Fulton,
nominated as assistant secretary of defense for manpower and reserve affairs. Part of the first West Point graduating class to include women, Fulton has a long history of fighting for LGBTQ+ rights in the military. She helped lead efforts to repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and fought against the ban on transgender servicemembers, and in 2