Chinese leader Xi Jinping‘s speech to the World Economic Forum’s “Davos Agenda” dialogue has generated many reactions, and his reference to China’s “opposition to bullying the weak” seems to have struck a chord with observers concerned about the constant intrusion by Chinese military aircraft recently. Not only did the U.S. media publish editorials criticizing it, but Taiwanese communities in the U.S. also issued condemnations, and Taiwan‘s representative to the U.S., Xiao Meiqin, even said she “will quote Xi Jinping on this.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) posted a video message from Xi Jinping on its official Twitter account on Monday (Jan. 25), mentioning that Xi said China “opposes bullying the strong and bullying the weak, and cannot decide who has the biggest arms and fists”.
The tweet drew many reactions from netizens, including questions about China’s “genocide” of the Uighurs, Canada‘s “two Michaels,” Tibet, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the South China Sea and other issues.
Taiwan’s representative to the U.S., Mei-Chin Hsiao, also tweeted in response to Xi’s speech, “I will quote him on this.”
The Washington-based Taiwanese Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) also condemned Xi in a statement on its Facebook page Tuesday and called on the international community to stand together against China.
In the statement, FAPA President Jane Minko said Xi’s speech “is the greatest and most outrageous irony ever! How can Xi Jinping say, without changing his face, that the strong should not bully the weak? China is the biggest bully in the world. Not only has he been bullying its democratic neighbor, Taiwan, moment by moment, but for decades it has also been bullying small African and East Asian countries. It has bullied virtually every country in the world!”
He said he hopes the international community will “see through Xi’s tricks and lies” and that it is Time for the international community to stand up together and join hands to confront China and Xi’s “rogue regime.
Patricia Kim, a Wilson Center fellow, told Bloomberg Television on Tuesday that Xi’s attempts to portray China as a multilateralist force may attract more questions today than they did a few years ago, such as in 2017, because of China’s initial handling of the new coronavirus and its resistance to a global investigation into the source of the virus, coupled with the issues of Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Taiwan issues, among others.
There has been a dramatic shift in global discourse about China,” she said. Since 2017, China’s global image has plummeted.”
In an editorial Monday titled “Xi Jinping Wins Their Cheers,” The Wall Street Journal noted that the Chinese president “threatened Taiwan while sweet-talking liberal leaders.”
The Davos agenda, the editorial said, called it a “historic opportunity for collaboration” on its official website, but Xi’s People’s Liberation Army “told a different story” last weekend, intruding into Taiwan’s airspace with more than a dozen military planes for two days in a row.
“The provocation is a reminder that while there is a rotation of administrations in Washington, there is not in Beijing, which still sees the extension of sovereignty to Taiwan, including possibly by force, as a priority.”
The editorial said, “In his speech, Xi said he ‘opposes bullying the strong and bullying the weak,’ but that admonition does not seem to apply to his own government. He also said, ‘We must adhere to the rules of international law and not engage in one-upmanship,’ and please say that to the people of Hong Kong, who were originally promised in the treaty Beijing signed with Britain that its autonomy would last until 2047, but are now being arrested for even mild political dissent.
The Biden administration seems to recognize the importance of Taiwan’s independence and U.S. dominance in the Western Pacific, judging from Secretary of State Blinken’s and Secretary of Defense Austin’s statements at the Senate hearing, but “many on his team are also true believers in the kind of global governance values Xi mentioned in his Davos speech,” the editorial said. Only unlike Xi, they do not have the experience to use those values as a shield to advance their own national interests.
So the editorial suggests that this poses a test for the Biden team in terms of how to deal with Xi’s aggressive regional actions without being misled by his pretense that he will abide by the international order.
China’s intrusion into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone with more than a dozen military aircraft over the weekend for two days in a row also led the Biden Administration, which has only been in power for a few days, to issue its first official statement on Taiwan.
State Department spokesman John Price urged Beijing to stop its military, diplomatic and economic pressure on Taiwan and reiterated the United States’ “rock-solid” commitment to the island.
In response to Xi’s Davos speech, White House spokeswoman Sharkey said on 25 May that President Biden will take a multilateral approach to dealing with China and that “the president is committed to stopping China’s economic misconduct in multiple areas, and the most effective way to do that is by working together with our allies and partners.”
At a regular press conference on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in response to Xi Jinping’s speech on the Davos agenda, which referred to “multilateralism” 11 times, that Xi was trying to put forward Chinese ideas to address the issues of the times as the world is currently mired in challenges such as the spread of the new Epidemic and economic recession, “without not to engage in self-respect”, “not to engage in conflict and confrontation”, “not to engage in stagnation”, “for the current confused world to point out the direction and way of development, showing the Chinese wisdom and Chinese take charge.”
According to the official website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Xi said in his speech in Davos that China “should uphold the international rule of law, unswervingly safeguard the international system with the United Nations at its core and the international order based on international law” and “insist on coordinating and regulating relations among countries through systems and rules, and oppose bullying the strong and bullying the weak. The Chinese government should not be able to say who has the strongest arms and fists, nor should it act unilaterally in the name of unilateralism.”
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