Xi Lectures Biden: “Both Time and Momentum Are On Our Side”
Hello, everyone, welcome to “Inconvenient Truths”. I am your host Jennifer Zeng.
Now that a new US administration is in office, how have the US-China relations changed? What lies ahead, and what kind of messages has Xi given to Biden so far, and what does that mean? Today let’s talk about these issues.
Setting a New Tone for US-China Relations
On January 25, the Chinese Communist Party's Xinhua News Agency published an article as the most important news. Its title is: "Xi Jinping Attends World Economic Forum's Davos Agenda Dialogue and Delivers A Special Speech". Xinhua also puts the following as the sub-title:
“Xi stresses that to solve the issues of our times, the international community needs to uphold and practice multilateralism and to promote the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind."
Some China observers say that Xi Jinping was actually publicly delivering his messages to Biden in a very high-profile manner, using the Davos forum as a channel, to set a new tone for U.S.-China relations.
Why do they say so?
Only several months ago, in last Sep., at the United Nations General Assembly, faced with President Trump’s direct demand for accountability, Xi Jinping's speech was very much low-key, saying that he only “suggested” multilateralism. He even tried to voice his “grievance” to other world leaders, saying that “whoever has a bigger fist can have a say” was not the right way to go to solve international issues.
In other words, he admitted that the US had a “bigger” fist than the CCP, that’s why he said that “whoever has a bigger fist can have a say in international affairs” was not the right way to go to solve international issues.
However, this time, Xi Jinping obviously didn’t think that the US had a “bigger fist” anymore, that’s why he didn’t sound like making a suggestion. Instead, he sounded like a world leader giving out a new order about “constructing a community with a shared future for mankind."
CCP’s Changed Attitude
From what we could observe recently, it is not difficult at all to see how the CCP’s attitude towards the US quickly changed. For example, the CCP dared not sanction US officials while Trump was in office, but rushed to sanction 28 people including Mike Pompeo right on Jan 20, exactly at the same time when Biden was sworn in, which is, noontime of Jan 20. Isn’t it too obvious a sign that the CCP wanted to give Biden a “下馬威”, which means an instant show of strength?
Actually, Xi Jinping started to show his strength as early as this year.
For example, on Jan 4, he stressed that the CCP’s army must be ready for war.
On Jan 6 local time, the CCP arrested 53 pro-democracy activists and one US lawyer in Hong Kong.
On Jan 12, Xinhua and many other CCP websites published an article titled "On the Fall of the US 'Beacon': It Deserves It! ” The article says that "The US used to self-claim itself as a ‘beacon’, as an icon of Western democracy. Now it has become a failed nation, " “the U.S. is failing", "the U.S. is no longer able to lead the world", "the U.S. is no longer a leader”, "Serves you right!", etc.
On Jan 14, the CCP's mouthpiece People's Daily cited Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi as saying that he "expects the new U.S. administration to return to multilateralism" and that he "opposes closed-door politics under the guise of multilateralism.”
On Jan 21, at a press conference of the CCP's Foreign Ministry, spokesperson Hua Chunying said, "President Biden repeatedly emphasized the word 'unity' in his inauguration speech, which is precisely what is needed in the current Sino-US relations", "In the past few years, the Trump administration, especially Pompeo, has planted too many mines in Sino-US relations that need to be removed; burned too many bridges that need to be rebuilt; and destroyed too many roads that need to be repaired", "I hope the new US administration ...... upholds non-conflict and non-confrontation ......" principles, etc.
Then, on Jan 23 and 24, the CCP suddenly sent out a large number of bombers and fighter jets to harass Taiwan for two consecutive days. This scale of the harassment was very unusual.
On Jan 26, CCP’s spokesperson Zhao Lijian said that in the past few years, the US had made “a directional mistake in U.S.-China relations”. He then seriously warned Biden to learn the lessons from Trump’s “wrong China policy”, to adopt “positive and constructive China policy”, to cooperate with China, so that the US-China relations can go back to the correct road of healthy development.
In recent days, there were rumors that Xi Jinping was trying to push for a summit with Biden, followed by rumors that Yang Jiechi, the Director of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission Office, was going to visit the US.
Although the CCP has denied this, I am afraid that there is some sort of truth in it. It is very likely that the CCP has sought a visit, but hasn’t received a response from the new U.S. administration. Biden has not yet filled his cabinet and is busy with domestic issues, so he is not ready to systematically discuss his China policy with the CCP yet.
But apparently, Xi Jinping cannot wait, that’s why he used the Davos Forum platform to deliver his messages to Biden publicly and aggressively.
Xi Jinping’s Three Demands to Biden
Then, what are the main demands Xi Jinping has laid out for Biden? There are at least 3 of them.
Re-entering the global supply chain.
Xi Jinping said that he "always supports economic globalization" and opposes "using the pandemic to engage in “de-globalization, closed door economy, and decoupling", and he hopes to "maintain the smooth and stable supply chain of the global industrial chain", and once again proposed "promoting the high-quality construction of the 'Belt and Road Initiative’".
It is very obvious that Xi Jinping is eager to have China become the "world factory" again, and the market he wants most is of course the US market, followed by Europe. The so-called Asian Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership free trade agreement is just something hyped up to delude people. There is not much essence in it.
As to the so-called “Internal Circulation” of China’s economy is sheer nonsense. The “positive” GDP growth of China's economy in 2020 is also fabricated. To be able to return and rejoin the global economy is the only way for the Chinese economy to grow.
The high tariffs imposed by Trump on Chinese goods are still in place, and Xi Jinping certainly wants Biden to cancel them as soon as possible. The CCP has not fulfilled its promise for phase one of the trade deal, and Xi Jinping probably wants to cancel that as well. When negotiating with Trump, Xi has repeatedly pretended to concede. But with Biden, Xi seems unwilling to even pretend anymore.
2. Lifting the sanctions, treating China as an “equal partner”.
According to Xi Jinping, "the essence of multilateralism is that international affairs are to be handled by everyone together, and the future and destiny of the world are to be jointly mastered by all countries," "not to be dictated by one or a few countries," and we should "reform and improve the global governance system," etc.
Xi was actually delivering these messages to Biden. Xi does not recognize the U.S. as the world leader. Despite the fact that the CCP is very isolated in the international community, Xi Jinping once again wants to compete with the US for hegemony.
Xi said he opposes other countries to "engage themselves within a 'small circle' and to start a 'new cold war'", and said that “we must overcome the development gaps between developed and developing countries ...... The international community should implement its commitments and provide the necessary support for the development of developing countries ...... so that people of all countries can share the opportunities and fruits of development".
When talking in such a manner, Xi Jinping was actually behaving like he was the leader of all the developing countries. He thus openly called out to the US, asking the US and Western countries to give support and share the fruits.
Xi also said that "scientific and technological achievements should benefit all mankind, and should not be used as a means to restrict or curb the development of other countries."
When listening to such arguments, you may want to say, “I’ve seen roguish people, but I’ve never seen anybody so roguish.”
Indeed, Xi Jinping made such a shameless statement, as if stealing technology from other countries is a great thing to do, and whichever country that doesn’t allow the CCP to steal is bad, is selfish, is hindering the development of developing countries, etc. We call it the logic of robbers.
These words of Xi Jinping are actually a direct denial of his own so-called "scientific and technological innovation", which means, the CCP doesn’t have the ability to innovate. It just wants to continue to steal the intellectual property rights of the US and the West with a straight face.
The real purpose of this statement is to ask Biden to lift a series of sanctions imposed by the Trump administration. Xi made his points by saying that other countries cannot just wantonly decouple with others, cut off supplies, impose sanctions, start trade wars, science and technology wars, etc.
So, Xi Jinping is asking Biden to return to Obama-era policies and continue to allow the CCP to infiltrate, expand its power, dump other countries’ markets, and steal other people’s technology, etc.
3. Recognizing the legitimacy of the CCP regime
Xi Jinping said that the international world should abandon "ideological prejudice", "arrogance" and "hatred", and not to impose "social systems on others”, "not to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries", "not to engage in conflict and confrontation", in "cold war or hot war", etc.
The Trump administration's decoupling from the CCP regime, which clearly distinguishes between the CCP and the Chinese people and basically stops diplomatic activities with the CCP regime, has directly exposed the legitimacy problem of the CCP and caused great panic for the top CCP leaders. Remember? Mike Pompeo once said that the biggest lie the CCP told was that it represents 1.4 billion Chinese people.
So now, obviously, Xi Jinping has asked Biden to recognize the CCP’s legitimacy again, and also to abandon any strategic confrontation with the CCP.
In the meantime, the CCP itself never stops treating the US and the West as its enemy, nor has it stopped its anti-American propaganda. It has been addressing Pompeo as “the common enemy of mankind” for a long time.
Also, Xi Jinping twice commemorated the Korean War in October last year, and earlier this year, he mentioned war preparations again.
And as late as last weekend, the CCP’s fighter jets and bomber just intruded Taiwan.
And at the same time, Xi is openly asking the United States to back down and surrender.
Not much to Cooperate
While he tries to be tough towards Biden, Xi knows very well that there are very few areas where the U.S. and China can really work together at this point. He mentioned the Paris Climate Agreement, which Biden has already decided to return to, to try to commit to the goal of peaking emissions by 2030 and becoming carbon neutral by 2060. This could be one of the few items that the U.S. and China could discuss. But we must remember, that whenever the CCP makes any promises, it never intends to keep them.
Xi did not dare to mention the Iranian and North Korean nuclear issues, fearing that if he had done so, there would be some kind of criticism from the world. However, even though he didn’t talk about it, he obviously thought these were also areas where Biden would need the CCP.
Xi also talked about cooperation in fighting the pandemic, which was a major part of his previous speeches at international meetings. Seeing that Biden has decided to return to the WHO, Xi Jinping also said again that he thought the WHO "has played an important role in fighting the pandemic. Obviously, he wanted to seek some kind of cooperation in this area, but I can’t see there is much that other countries can cooperate on with the CCP.
“Both Time and Momentum Are On Our Side”?
I am not sure how many people have noticed the stark difference. Only several months ago, last year, many countries in the world were talking about holding the CCP responsible for the spread of the COVID19 pandemic, and seeking compensation.
Now, nobody is talking about it anymore. On the contrary, some people started talking about what a wonderful job the CCP had done in controlling the pandemic. Some countries feel that they need the CCP’s help with some medical and vaccine supplies, so they dare not criticize the CCP anymore.
And the CCP also feels so confident with itself that Xi Jinping started to boast that “both time and momentum are on our side,” which equals “History is on our side.” The CCP feels very happy to have survived the Trump Administration’s heavy below. Now it feels that the pandemic has given it a lot of strategic advantages, and it has a very good opportunity to overtake the US and become the No.1 country in the world.
Anyway, it seems that is how the CCP feels and what its plans are for now. Will it work?
We will have to wait and see. There is an idiom in Chinese, “人算不如天算”, which means human’s plans or calculations will never beat heaven’s arrangements.
There are also two other Chinese idioms, one is “物極必反”， which means when things reach an extreme, they can only move in the opposite direction. Another one is “回光返照”，which means the final radiance of setting sun. After this final radiance, its lifespan is over.
I always think there is great wisdom in Chinese culture and language. Do you agree with me?
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1/27/2021 *
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