May 23: “Thawing” relations with China 101… let them stage a cyberattack????

In which, a China relations “reset” gets off to a rocky start, Ukraine’s spring offensive appears to be a non-start, and Ron DeSantis looks for a fresh start to his presidential campaign.

How to “thaw” relations with China: Let them stage a cyber attack… wait, what?

With debt ceiling talks dragging out, warnings from the Treasury Secretary getting regular and dire, and the border continuing to be the crisis-that-shall-not-be-named, President Biden is looking abroad for wins. We’ll get to what that looks like for Ukraine in just a moment, but let’s take a look at Biden’s China policy first. The President went on record this week saying he expected a major “thaw” in relations with China this week, coming just days after the US and China were competing for influence in Papua New Guinea and other Pacific nations. 

As if to test the Biden administration's commitment to ratchet things down, China appears to have ratcheted things up. 

First, China matched America’s bans on US chip companies doing business with Chinese tech companies with accusations of its own and bans of its own.

Next, a large cyber attack was detected aimed at critical infrastructure on the island of Guam with China being the implicated actor. China, of course, denies any such actions, but a similar situation has developed in Kenya, so it would seem that China is testing the waters of a more forceful cyber posture as the “chip wars” heat up.

Not sure if this was exactly the “thaw” President Biden was looking for, but here we are. Perhaps China’s new ambassador to the US will help smooth things over.