Checking China’s military: Biden’s next challenge

The response that mattered most after last week’s European summitry between President Joe Biden and America’s allies came roughly 48 hours later and 10,000 miles away.

It was the roar of 28 Chinese bombers and fighter jets crossing the narrow strait off China’s coast and breaching the air-defense zone of the island democracy of Taiwan.

That was Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s answer to the allied criticism of his economic, security, and human-rights record, and its meaning was clear: “China has become.”