Since President Joe Biden took office, it’s been challenging to keep up with the whirlwind of scandals, cover-ups, and truly mind-boggling decisions.

One that seems like ancient history is the withdraw of American troops from Afghanistan. There may have been good reasons to end or greatly reduce our presence there, but the way Biden did it was dishonorable to the good men and women fighting for our nation, and deadly to 13 of them. By any measure, it was a disastrous retreat and surrender and an international embarrassment for the world’s superpower.

A year and a half later, that decision has proved to be even worse than we expected.

Biden’s reckless decision effectively announced American weakness to the world and invited Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine. At the same time, the Biden family’s dirty dealings with China let Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party know that America could be bought and sold.

In barely more than two years, it’s not an overstatement to declare that the Biden presidency has destroyed American credibility, prevented us from wielding any leverage on the international stage, and left our country in a state of irrelevancy as Putin and Xi pull the puppet strings of the global political order.

There’s always jockeying in global power politics, but China seems to be acting too comfortably. Could it have something to do with those Biden family financial ties?

A recent memo published by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability reveals how Chairman James Comer and other members are looking into questionable payments, including a $3 million transfer to a Biden family associate less than two months after Joe Biden left office as Barack Obama’s vice president on January 20, 2017.

Apparently, as long as Joe Biden is in the White House, China can do as it pleases.

It’s no wonder that Putin and Xi have formed a closer relationship: Russia needs China’s manufacturing might, and China needs Russia’s energy abundance.

“Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an agreement to expand their economic ties during a bilateral meeting in Moscow on Tuesday,” reports Fox News. “Xi is in Moscow for a multiday series of meetings with his Russian counterpart, aimed at demonstrating the two countries’ new ‘friendship without limits.’ Xi and Putin emphasized the importance of jointly safeguarding their countries’ energy security. Putin touted plans for a gas pipeline from Siberia to China ahead of the meeting, saying the agreement was all but finalized.”

As Xi told Putin, “Change that hasn’t happened in 100 years is coming and we are driving this change together.”

China and Russia may be forming a new alliance, but China is calling all the shots. The Chinese relationship with the Russians is merely a means to a globe-dominating end.

“The visit also makes plain the contrast between Beijing’s emboldened geopolitical ambitions and Russia’s embattled economic and political standing in the world,” reports The Wall Street Journal. “Beijing has thrown an economic lifeline to Russia amid Western sanctions, buying up its oil and gas and supplying it with microchips and other advanced technologies that can have military uses.”

It certainly seems like there’s a new sheriff in town, and maybe that explains why Biden National Security Council spokesman John Kirby keeps going out of his way to remind us how great American leadership is.

There was a time not too long ago when we didn’t have to keep telling the world about American preeminence. They saw it with their own eyes. These days, while our nation wrestles with inflation, bank failures, a mind-boggling national debt, and a military more focused on sex and skin color than missiles and ships, China is setting its sights on global dominance.

One of the key components of China’s long-term agenda is known as the Global Security Initiative. The complex plan, which is vague in many respects, seeks to forge political alliances around the world with the goal of positioning China as the globe’s arbiter of political, economic, and military affairs.

Our own Emmy Griffin recently wrote about one of those military affairs: “As tensions mount between the three nuclear powers, questions are rising once again about China and President Xi Jinping’s ‘no limits’ relationship with Russia. Putin has been struggling in his war, in no small part thanks to the weapons and financial aid that the U.S. has provided to Ukraine. Xi may feel like it’s time to intervene in a more palpable way.”

Former UN ambassador and current presidential candidate Nikki Haley sees Chinese intervention in a similar way: “Beijing has set its sights on overtaking the U.S. militarily, economically and culturally. Mr. Xi is in Moscow because supporting Mr. Putin advances his dark vision. He wants Russia to conquer Ukraine so it’s easier for China to invade Taiwan. He wants Russia to threaten the rest of Europe because it draws America’s attention from Asia.”

With the American president bought and paid for, and with our foreign-policy fecklessness on full display for the rest of the world, the road for China’s ascendancy is paved with silk and Russian natural resources.