The past week or so could be called “China Week” for Biden, who not only took the initiative to talk to Xi Jinping on the phone, but also repeatedly talked about the U.S.-China and Xi Jinping’s relationship, and quietly revoked Trump‘s Confucius Institute restrictions. Chinese netizens saw this as a gesture of goodwill to China. This is the first step down in U.S.-China relations that Beijing has found.
I’ve probably spent more Time with Xi Jinping than any other world leader, because when I was vice president, I had 24 to 25 hours of personal meetings with him, traveled 17,000 miles with him, and I know him well,” he said in an interview with CBS last Sunday. He’s very smart and very tough. I don’t mean to be critical, but that’s the reality, there’s nothing democratic in his bones. The thing is, I’ve said all along that there’s no need for conflict between us, although there will be a very fierce competition, and I’m not going to compete the way he [Xi Jinping] wants to.” It was his first public comment on Xi since taking office.
He then spoke with Xi on the phone on New Year’s Eve, his first formal contact with Xi since taking office. The following day, he told U.S. senators that the two had a two-hour conversation on the phone and had a good time. At a speed of 150 words per minute (with translation), the two-hour conversation must have been 18,000 words long, but the Xinhua News Agency published less than 1,000 words, with Xi’s “admonition” that the human rights and security issues raised by Biden, such as Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Taiwan, are all internal affairs of China, indicating that cooperation is mutually beneficial, while fighting is mutually detrimental, and hoping that We hope to manage differences, resume dialogue, focus on cooperation, and avoid misleading and misjudging. These are all very vague talks on principles, with no substance. On the contrary, the Biden talks released by the U.S. side are much more concrete, emphasizing his concerns about Beijing’s suppression of the pro-democracy faction in Hong Kong, human rights violations in Xinjiang, and arbitrary actions against Taiwan, as well as his concerns about Beijing’s coercive and unfair economic practices, and talking about the Wu-lung Epidemic, climate change, and The prevention of weapons proliferation. But in the end, he only wanted to let Americans know that he was concerned about these issues, and that the vast majority of his talks were not released, which is the key message that will affect US-China relations!
On Wednesday, during an appearance on CNN, he again referred to his phone call with Xi Jinping, saying that the United States must speak out for human rights, but “not loudly about what he’s doing in Hong Kong,” and that China will eventually have to pay the consequences for human rights violations, and Xi knows it. In other words, he will be concerned about human rights in China, but he will not criticize it loudly. This is the kind of goodwill that he is secretly offering to Beijing and Xi Jinping while currying favor with American voters.
In fact, his public comments about Xi Jinping reveal a great deal of information about what is really on his mind.
First, Biden claims to have had a lot of contact with Xi and to know him well, but his statement is no different from what we know and understand about Xi Jinping, as if he were calling his mother a woman. Is there a problem with his observation skills, or with U.S. intelligence capabilities, or does the outside world know too much about Xi Jinping?
Second, Biden’s comment that Xi is very smart is very different from that of the late Chinese Communist Party patriarch Li Rui. Li said, “I didn’t know at that time that he had such a low level of Education, you know that, right? He had an elementary school level.” Li Rui, who was executive vice minister of the Central Organization Department, knew Xi’s Family well, and was the one who transferred him to Xiamen, Fujian, as vice mayor when Xi couldn’t stay in Hebei province. By the time Xi became secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee, he had a private dinner with Li Rui’s family of three and had some heart-to-heart conversations. Whose assessment is more accurate? A very smart schoolboy? Maybe!
Both to say negative comments and fear of angering each other
Third, Biden seems to be afraid of offending Xi Jinping. On the one hand, he says Xi is smart and tough and has no democracy in his bones, but then he adds, “I don’t mean to criticize”. This should be the focus: Biden wants to say what everyone knows is negative about Xi, but he is afraid of angering the other side. He made such contradictory comments about Xi because he wanted to please U.S. domestic public opinion and politicians while not wanting to upset Beijing and damage U.S.-China relations and thus U.S. interests, especially those of Wall Street firms, multinational corporations, Hollywood and Silicon Valley digital giants that are poised to enter China in a big way.
In the future, both sides will definitely try to find some steps down, in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and other issues, not only to make Beijing seem to be punished to meet the demands of American public opinion, but in fact to help Beijing escape from sanctions (such as the release of Confucius Institute and the suspension of the ban on Jitterbug), so that Beijing can save face, and Chinese goods can break into the American market again. Chinese goods can break into the U.S. market again, and U.S. companies also earn the benefits of the huge Chinese market. It is foreseeable that in the next few years, Sino-US relations will return to the Clinton and Obama eras: tough talk and secret interests!
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