SNA (Tokyo) — In a tacit admission that US influence in the Islamic world is in freefall, the Biden administration is openly seeking the People’s Republic of China’s help in extricating itself from its self-inflicted fiascos in Gaza and Yemen.

US officials believe that they can reduce Houthi solidarity with the Palestinian people by working diplomatically through China and Iran.

“China has influence over Tehran,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at a media briefing last Tuesday. “And they have the ability to have conversations with Iranian leaders that we can’t.”

Kirby added, “What we’ve said repeatedly is: we would welcome a constructive role by China, using the influence and the access that we know they have, to try to help stem the flow of weapons and munitions to the Houthis.”

While Kirby attempted to play this off as business as usual, it represents a clear recognition of Washington’s disintegrating international clout in the Islamic world.

From the collapse of British and French empires in the region through their Suez War humiliation in 1956 until very recently, US leaders have treated the “Middle East” as their own imperial preserve. No other major nation has been welcomed to play a role in the region unless invited to do so by Washington. Soviet inroads were greeted with hostility for decades, pro-US dictators were bolstered, and anti-US regimes have been relentlessly harassed and sometimes directly invaded.

Welcoming Beijing to play “a constructive role” (i.e. a role supporting US objectives) is a sharp reversal of decades of imperial policy. Everyone recognizes that China is playing its own hand and is not under US control.

Also, it’s not entirely obvious why Kirby believes Beijing can “have conversations with Iranian leaders” which the world’s leading global superpower somehow cannot have.

US officials could certainly talk to Iranian officials should they want to do so. If there is any restriction on Washington’s ability to talk, it is self-imposed. Kirby’s assertion probably relates to the fact that Biden diplomats have demonstrated zero ability to go beyond conventional wisdom—they never think outside of the box.

Their ridiculous establishment taboo mindset now prevails to such a degree that they now hope Beijing might help them carry out US policy, rather than simply turn over a new leaf and take a direct diplomatic initiative with Tehran.

For their part, Chinese leaders can probably scarcely believe how much the Biden administration keeps handing them diplomatic victory after victory. It’s like playing a game of chess with a bunch of five-year-olds.

Kirby and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spend nearly every day publicly justifying Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza, often sounding more like they are officials working for the Israeli government than the US government.

The Palestinian death toll has now risen above 26,000 people. Many observers wonder in horror just how many women and children have to die brutal deaths before “Genocide Joe” and his henchmen decide that too much blood has been shed or before Israel has been adequately permitted to “defend itself.”

Outside of the West and a handful of security dependents such as Japan, pretensions of US moral superiority are widely recognized as an unfunny global joke. The International Court of Justice now officially recognizes that South Africa’s charges of genocide against Israel are sufficiently plausible for the case to move forward. All the while, the US superpower keeps digging a deeper and deeper hole for its own reputation as its political support for the slaughter continues.

Beijing can win diplomatically by offering a limited helping hand to the flailing Biden administration, or it could also win by just standing aside and let the enablers of the mass murder of Palestinian civilians stew in their own juice. Either way, US influence in the Global South is sinking fast, and Beijing’s influence is rising.

As for the public position which China has actually taken on Yemen and the Houthis, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin played it right down the middle, in a manner which is implicitly damning for Biden administration policies.

“From day one,” Wang stated, “China has actively deescalated the situation, called for an end to the disturbance to civilian ships, and urged relevant parties to avoid fueling the tensions in the Red Sea and jointly protect the safety of international sea lanes in accordance with the law. What must be underlined is that the tensions in the Red Sea are a spillover of the Gaza conflict, which should end as soon as possible to prevent it from escalating or spiraling out of control. The UN Security Council has never authorized the use of force by any country against Yemen.”

This article was originally published on January 29, 2023, in the “Japan and the World” newsletter. Become a Shingetsu News supporter on Patreon and receive the newsletter by email each Monday morning.