Inside Washington, there is still significant consternation over the possibility that China may invade Taiwan and what the U.S. response would be. That’s understandable, given the current circumstances. But there is a larger and different type of “war” with China that doesn’t receive as much attention. China is in the process of conducting political warfare against the West in general and America in particular. That may soon be coupled with a form of economic warfare, considering how dependent we remain on them in key elements of the supply chain. The White House has been speaking to the leadership in the United Kingdom where they are grappling with the same issues. But in terms of having a long-term plan, the general consensus seems to be that we don’t have one. And that’s worrisome. (Free Beacon)

The United States and United Kingdom are struggling to counter China’s increasingly hostile political warfare operations, according to sources briefed on recent high-level meetings between officials from both countries.

During this month’s summit between British leaders and members of the House Select Committee on China, officials acknowledged that while both countries have strategies in place to handle a military confrontation with China, “we have no plan” to combat Chinese aggression off the battlefield, according to a source briefed on the contents of the private discussions.

The CCP’s political warfare operations were raised as a concern in several meetings during the transatlantic summit, a sign that both countries are struggling to beat back China’s growing global footprint. Officials from both countries expressed concerns about a burgeoning “international order with Chinese characteristics,” according to the source briefed on the meetings.

We haven’t even been able to get all of our own people on the same page. Joe Biden continues to insist that he doesn’t want to “decouple” from China and he seeks to “de-risk” and to foster a cooperative, competitive environment.  But that ship seems to have sailed. Others are taking this challenge far more seriously as is deserved, but without Biden being on board, there’s not much leverage available.

Meanwhile, China has essentially been “ghosting” the United States. Biden continues to propose meetings and calls at various levels, but Beijing has basically been ignoring him. Jake Sullivan did manage to land a meeting with one of China’s highest-ranking diplomats earlier this month, but if anything came of it, they had nothing to announce.

While all of that is playing out, China continues to strip away America’s former allies and partners. Most of NATO is still standing with us at this point, but in the western Pacific, Africa, and South America, China has been alarmingly successful. In case anyone hasn’t noticed, there are many countries who have continued to abstain in any votes at the UN proposed by America that would further sanction Russia over Ukraine. And China is one of the countries abstaining, along with India.

The world is simply not as united against Russia as the White House would have you believe. That’s why all of the sanctions and other economic warfare have thus far failed to collapse Russia’s economy and force them to the negotiating table as we were originally assured would happen.

China appears to be content with the idea of building a new pole of global power centered around itself, Russia, Iran, and whoever else they can rope into the circus. And we’re talking about both military and economic power. I doubt that either Russia or China wants to literally go to war with the United States even now, but they would be more than happy to freeze us out and split us away from our allies and trading powers. So what’s our plan to stop all of that from happening? As I said at the top… we clearly don’t have one.