Editor's note: Hamzah Rifaat Hussain, a former visiting fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington and former assistant researcher at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute, is a TV anchor at Indus News in Pakistan. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.

The United States decision to issue warnings to companies in other sovereign states should be construed as nothing more than a coverup for its diplomatic failures in Ukraine. Such measures reveal how hegemonic designs detrimental to world peace and economic cooperation are part of the Joe Biden doctrine. 

After repeated blunders on resolving the crisis with Russia, the U.S. State Department warned Chinese companies to refrain from evading export controls imposed on Moscow, which is an example of crass economic coercion being employed as a diplomatic tool. Such measures only reveal how the Biden administration continues to be gravely insecure on the foreign policy front given the lack of constructive approaches being pursued in cases such as Ukraine. 

The truth is that the United States has committed repeated diplomatic faux pas at the UN Security Council and in Geneva with Russia on Ukraine which should have ideally prompted some soul searching. Yet, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said that Washington is at liberty to apply an array of tools if foreign companies including those located in China evade export controls on Russia and assist Moscow against Ukrainian sanctions. 

Viewed impartially, these measures have little to do with Ukraine and more to do with economic strangulation and political signaling where Washington expects sovereign states to bandwagon with its nefarious designs despite the fact that economic coercion as a tool is controversial for U.S. allies given the demerits of antagonizing Russia. To now issue warnings to Chinese companies shows how the Biden administration's approach on Ukraine constitutes misinterpretation, miscalculation and misrepresentation and is only a tool to forward geopolitical goals of containing China and Russia.

By squarely targeting Chinese companies, Washington is essentially trying to create fractures in a bilateral economic relationship which goes beyond geopolitics and is an example of meaningful and apolitical engagement. In light of this irrefutable fact, these measures must be construed as nothing more than an attempt to undercut Russia-China ties which are historically grounded in a high degree of mutual trust on regional affairs. 

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed understanding and support to the Russian position on the provocative designs of the United States and NATO in Ukraine, and nothing can detract from the fact that China continues to be Russia's top trading partner and a key source of investment in Russia's energy projects which includes the Yamal LNG plant in the Arctic Circle and the Power of Siberia pipeline worth $55 billion, of which the latter is the largest in Russia history. Wang Yi said that China is ready to work with Russia to deepen the time-honored friendship and comprehensive strategic coordination between the two countries.

The Biden administration, instead of analyzing flaws in its overall diplomatic approach on Ukraine has resorted to controversial tactics where warning Chinese companies comes days after sanctions on Moscow's energy supplies were called amid cosmetic calls for diplomatically resolving the crisis. The United States has also chosen to pursue bloc politics as part of its grand encirclement strategy as mentioned by national security official Peter Harrell, who said that Washington was working on export control measures with allies in Asia such as Japan and South Korea which target China. 

Lessons from recent history have clearly not been learnt, as the U.S.-Japanese alliance to restrict exports of advanced technology to China had earlier exposed impracticalities given its provocative nature and the fact that it could also cause supply chain disruptions. To reach out to Asian states once again to encircle China and Russia over its own mishandling of Ukraine, is bound to meet a similar fate as most states understand that economically antagonizing would only exaggerate tensions instead of address them. 

Yet these strategies constitute the Biden doctrine on Russia and China which has so far been controversial, isolationist and impractical. There is no relenting on the U.S. position of aggressive posturing both militarily and economically, and that corporations in sovereign states are the latest target is yet another example of such aggressive posturing. This is nothing but a coverup for Washington's foreign policy blunders on Ukraine.

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