President Joe Biden, inert leader of the free world (allegedly) who once confidently proclaimed America is back and that diplomacy is at the center of the nation’s foreign policy, has made a mess of U.S.-China relations.

To be sure, China is the villain in the recent international incident that was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which has since caused China to carry out large-scale military exercises around the island and cut off vital contacts with the U.S.

But it was the Biden administration’s mishandling of the situation from the beginning that led to the current debacle.

Whether or not Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan – which Beijing insists belongs to China – was wise became largely irrelevant once news of the planned visit leaked. Pelosi’s journey to Taiwan was all but assured lest American credibility be further weakened by the perception that the Chinese government dictates Pelosi’s travel itinerary.

So she touched down briefly in Taipei, straining already tense relations between the U.S. and China.

The Biden administration’s tepid at best support for Pelosi’s trip gave the distinct impression the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government are not on the same page.

This is par for the course for Biden, who does not seem to take the Chinese threat to America and the West seriously.

The Chinese government has every intention of making Taiwan a part of mainland China, including using military force if necessary. The Chinese communists are not, and have not been for a very long time, hiding their intentions.

Meanwhile, the U.S. – fresh off a disastrous and humiliating military retreat from Afghanistan last summer – seems content to let China build on its strategic and tactical advantages in the South China Sea.

China poses a much more intense economic and military threat to the U.S. now than it did the last time a Speaker of the House – Newt Gingrich – visited Taiwan in 1997.  (These days, the U.S. military, which is not meeting recruiting quotas, is more focused on promoting critical race theory and being woke than seriously preparing for war with China.)

And yet Biden, possibly compromised by business dealings in China involving himself and his ne'er-do-well son, Hunter, seems to be in no rush on any front – economic, diplomatic, military – to dissuade China from its malevolent territorial ambitions.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

The Pentagon announced for a second time that it will delay a planned intercontinental ballistic missile test launch amid increased tensions with China over Taiwan.

This attempt to appease China will only be seen as further weakness by the Sino regime, emboldening Beijing to continue, if not ratchet up, its belligerence.

The way things are going, it is not difficult to imagine a far off future in which Taiwan has long been part of mainland China. That being the case, people will look back at this period in history and cringe at America’s naïve approach to the Sino menace.