In multiple ways, President Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. is signaling to Xi Jinping and the rest of China's leadership that he is accepting a status as subordinate to them.  In the context of China's openly proclaimed goal of taking over U.S. ally Taiwan, this is an example of what the late secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld called "provocative weakness."

[I]f history has taught anything, it's that weakness is provocative. It entices people into doing things that they otherwise would not do. The course of action that says "Don't make Saddam Hussein unhappy or mad because he might do something" is kind of like feeding an alligator hoping it eats you last.

Biden hasn't (yet) performed a kētóu (called kowtow by Westerners), a ritual stretching back more than two thousand years, kneeling and touching the forehead to the floor, before Chairman-for-Life Xi, the way that foreign envoys were required to abase themselves before China's emperor.  But in the language of diplomacy, he has almost done the same thing.

Recall the Chinese spy balloon that Biden allowed to complete its mission before shooting it down over the ocean, citing the risible threat to people on the ground as it flew over sparsely populated Montana.

A bombshell exclusive report from NBC reveals that rather than expressing anger against the spy effort, Biden had to be talked out of contracting Chairman Xi directly:

President Joe Biden wanted to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the days after the U.S. military shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina — even saying publicly that he expected to do so — but his top national security advisers talked him out of it, according to two senior administration officials and one former senior U.S. official familiar with the discussions.

Biden believed his relationship with Xi could help tamp down the newly escalated tensions with Beijing if he had the opportunity to speak directly and smooth things over, the officials said. But the president's advisers made the case to him that it was not the right time for a leader-to-leader conversation, the officials said.

Smooth things over?  The United States' sovereign airspace was violated, and sensitive military installations surveilled.  We were the aggrieved party!  Personally initiating a call to "smooth things over" signals a cowering fear of the more powerful party, whom we dare not offend, even as it figuratively spits in our face.

Nick Arama of RedState caught the shameful posture:

Biden said the U.S. wasn't "looking for conflict". But that's the exact time you're supposed to make a strong face to the Chinese, not act like everything is normal when they've made some pretty offensive and aggressive moves toward us. This is the height of weakness from Biden, and it's a big loss of face to the Chinese. No wonder they think they can run right over him. He also said the relationship hadn't taken a "big hit" and he knew that because he spoke to them.

Q: "Have relations now between the U.S. and China taken a big hit?"

BIDEN: "No" *long pause* "no"

Q: "How do you know?"

BIDEN: "I know. I've talked to them." pic.twitter.com/pH3O3atwzi

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 8, 2023

Yet, who did he speak to?  He didn't speak to Xi. You can see even in that interview he didn’t admit — until he was pressed — that he hadn't spoken directly to Xi over this matter.

Chairman Xi understands this well.  And he responds in ways that signal to everyone that China calls the shots.

Secretary of state Antony Binken "postponed" a scheduled trip to Beijing over the incident but reportedly took the initiative to make the trip now, arriving Saturday.  Instead of China begging to be in communication with the more powerful party, the approach reportedly taken puts the U.S. in the role of supplicant.  And China got the message and responded further with no red carpet and no senior official greeting him upon arrival.  Customarily, the peer of an arriving diplomat — in this case, China's foreign minister — would have greeted him, with a red carpet and much ceremony.

Blinken lands in China. No red carpet, no greeting party and no high level CPC officals. pic.twitter.com/BNDlj66qz4

— DaiWW (@BeijingDai) June 18, 2023

Compare this to the treatment of Russian foreign minister Lavrov upon arrival in Beijing, seen here.

Astonishingly, as Blinken was nearing China, Biden had self-abasement still on his mind, and, arriving in Philadelphia for a train wreck of a joint presser with Senator Fetterman, took a reporter's question on relations with China.  Bonchie of RedState reports:

Biden claimed that the Chinese spy balloon that traversed much of the continental United States wasn't intentional and that CCP leadership wasn't even aware of what the balloon was doing.

REPORTER: Can Secretary Blinken ease tensions with China on this trip, do you think?

BIDEN: Sure, well look…(long pause)…China has…(long pause)…some legitimate difficulties unrelated, unrelated to the United States. And…I think, one of the things that that balloon caused was not so much that it got shot down, but I don't think that the leadership knew where it was, and knew what was in it, and knew what was going on. I think it was more embarrassing than it was intentional.

And so, uh, I'm hoping that over the next several months, I'll be meeting with Xi again, and talking about legitimate differences we have, but also how those areas we can get along.

What did that shameless, dishonest groveling at the feet of the Chinese dictatorship accomplish? The answer is apparently nothing. 

Actually, the answer accomplished something — for China and Xi.  It demonstrated that Biden accepts his status as a modern version of what the Imperial Chinese since the Ming Dynasty called a "tributary state," meaning envoys from lesser states had to bring gifts to the emperor (kowtowing, of course), and receive gifts back in return, for the privilege of being able to trade with China.  This gave real-world confirmation of the fact that China was the power center of a Sino-centric system of international relations.  China's Belt-and-Road initiative is seeking to restore a Sino-centric world order through indebting and tying to China lesser nations throughout the world, shoving aside the old order created by Western powers whose day has now passed, in their view.

Do not for a moment think that this glorious history of China dominating its part of the world for millennia is unknown to either the leadership in Beijing or the masses of Chinese people.  This is how the world was before the evil Westerners brought opium and ruin to China, disrupting the natural order of things (China in charge) with social disintegration and mass drug addiction.  The ensuing four centuries of Western domination were a profound humiliation and the cause of tremendous suffering.  Nobody in China forgets this.

And if some people lust for revenge and think that flooding us with drugs that kill is just payback, can we really say there is no basis for such feelings?

The so-far reported results of the conversations underway in Beijing do not appear to indicate China backing down:

Blinken said in a statement earlier he "held candid, substantive, and constructive talks" with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on Sunday in which they agreed to continue the discussions — though he did not mention whether progress was made on key areas of disagreement, including Taiwan, human rights in Xinjiang or trade.

It is obvious to me that there must be some reason why Biden continually minimizes China's threat.  Could it be the massive amounts of money China sent via Hunter Biden's business arrangements?

Or is there something more?