(WASHINGTON EXAMINER) — Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe argued on Monday that the Biden administration’s approach to the Chinese government is flawed because it is “inconsistent” with what intelligence demands.
After the Trump administration embraced a national security strategy of ramping up pressure on the Chinese Communist Party, Ratcliffe, fresh out of government, critiqued White House press secretary Jen Psaki saying President Biden will take a patient, rather than active, stance by forming an interagency review process and reaching out to Republicans, Democrats, and global allies about its China strategy.
“I can just tell you that what Jen Psaki said is entirely inconsistent with what the intelligence shows. The intelligence doesn’t say we should have patience with respect to China, it says we should act with respect to China,” Ratcliffe said on Fox News. “The policies that were based on that intelligence in the Trump administration should be followed. I increased our spending on China from an intelligence collection standpoint in the intelligence community budget by 20% — that ought to increase even more going forward, and what I’m hearing are signs that maybe we will back off and we want better relations with China, and the path of appeasement is the road to nowhere when it comes to China.”
