Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s Juneteenth trip to Beijing has been lowballed as basically a social call to re-open a bilateral “dialogue” with little of substance expected to come of it. 

Translation: Something is up.

It could be that Blinken’s prostrating kow-tow to Xi Jinping will simply permit Joe Biden to do the same with the Chinese dictator in the next few months. This will be trumpeted as a victory for diplomacy and a boost to Biden’s reelection bid.

Here's a thought-experiment: What if this meeting instead tees up an enormous strategic defeat in response to the Chinese dictating to the hapless Blinken that they’re going to seize Taiwan before November 2024 – but will guarantee U.S. access to the island’s advanced chip-manufacturing if we don’t interfere? 

Of course, that guarantee would be worthless. But it may be an “offer” Joe won’t refuse.

This is Frank Gaffney.