Joe Biden’s administration is an outright mess. And it’s only getting worse.
Because this White House retirement news has rocked Washington, D.C. to the core.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this morning that Wendy Sherman, the U.S. deputy secretary of state, will leave the State Department at the end of June.
The declaration was made the day following a shocking Reuters story that Sherman had obstructed specific sanctions against the Chinese Communist Party.
In a lengthy statement that outlined her numerous State Department positions during three presidential administrations, Blinken concluded by thanking Wendy for her service on behalf of the Department.
Sherman’s role in delaying long-scheduled moves on the department’s “competitive actions” calendar, a series of regulations intended to fight Beijing’s nefarious activities, was described in an article published by Reuters yesterday.
Sherman reportedly directed that some actions, such as tougher limitations on Huawei and penalties punishing CCP leaders from the United Front Work Department for their role in the Uyghur genocide, be delayed in the aftermath of the Chinese spy-balloon incident in February.
Rick Waters, the department employee in charge of State’s internal China policy cell, sent an email on February 6 shortly after the balloon incident. Reuters was able to secure a copy of the communication.
The Secretary of State has given the directive to move non-balloon activity to the right so that we may concentrate on symmetric and calibrated reaction. In a few weeks, we can review different activities.
According to sources who spoke with the publication, Sherman is in charge of the State Department’s policy toward China, and in late March, Waters informed her staff that Sherman had stated that the department will move past the balloon issue because she wanted Blinken to reschedule a trip to Beijing that had been delayed.
Sherman’s orders, according to Reuters, “damaged morale” within the cell, known as China House.
According to the report, Sherman’s viewpoint appears to represent the Biden administration’s larger strategy for cooperating with China following the spy-balloon incident.
After national-security adviser Jake Sullivan visited with top CCP diplomat Wang Yi for a hastily planned round of talks in Vienna yesterday, a senior administration official told reporters, “We’re seeking to move beyond that.”
Chinese diplomats have frequently asked the Biden administration for U.S. policy changes in exchange for a meeting with their highest leaders.
The White House says that they won’t be giving into the Chinese Communist Party’s requests for policy concessions, which would be good.
But there seems to be dueling opinions within the Biden administration as it pertains to how to deal with Communist China’s rise to dominance.
Seeking to “move beyond” the Chinese spy balloon fiasco definitely seems short-sighted given that it was just a few months ago and Americans still don’t have answers for what happened.
The last thing Americans want to see is the Biden administration kowtowing to the demands of the Chinese government which is interested in only protecting and strengthening Communist China.
The Biden administration is saying one thing about China, but acting in an entirely different way that allows China to continue to embolden its rhetoric and actions.
It will be interesting to see how the Biden administration approaches the issue of Communist China in the coming months with Wendy Sherman gone.
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
