The two countries held a high-level dialogue in Anchorage, Alaska, and officials from both sides were uncharacteristically saber-rattling. The official media in mainland China also took the opportunity to promote nationalism and incite the public to resist the US. Some mainland scholars believe that the U.S. and China have entered a turning point in the Cold War, and even estimate that the Chinese Communist Party has prepared for a second Pacific war.
On March 18, U.S. Time, Yang Jiechi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a high-level Sino-U.S. dialogue with Secretary of State Blinken and Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Sullivan in Anchorage. Chinese official media labeled the dialogue “strategic” to elevate its importance, but Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s remarks underscored that the Communist Party was using the meeting as a platform to launch a propaganda campaign against the U.S. side.
In a rare move, the official Xinhua News Agency on Friday (19) published Wang Yi’s extensive condemnation of the U.S. at the meeting in the first place, without any statement from U.S. officials. The People’s Daily even prepared a series of graphics for release on mainland social media to promote Yang Jiechi’s speech.
Some netizens compared the history of the Qing Dynasty’s oppression by the Western powers to the U.S.-China talks, proving that Xi Jinping‘s diplomatic ideas of “looking at the world from a level perspective” and “rising from the east and descending from the west” were truly implemented. Sina Jiangsu netizen “modern charcoal seller” commented that this is not a negotiation, but a war of public opinion. Another netizen praised Yang and Wang for “fighting for the Chinese people” and said that he disliked the U.S., that the Chinese are not to be bullied and that China will be strong. The report on China-U.S. relations ranked second on Sina’s Hot 100 with more than four million hits that day.
The diplomatic gesture of war wolves is really a show by the top brass and domestic public opinion
Wu Qiang, a former lecturer in the political science department of Tsinghua University who followed the meeting, said in an interview with Radio Free Asia on the same day that Chinese and U.S. officials were tit-for-tat and had no sincerity in finding a solution to their differences: “The Chinese side seems to have come to argue, which seems to indicate that they are under great pressure to seek this dialogue and are not prepared to make any concessions in this dialogue. Perhaps this war-wolf diplomatic posture is actually a show for the highest levels.”
Yang Jiechi (center), director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and Wang Yi, foreign minister of the Communist Party of China, at high-level U.S.-China talks in Alaska on March 18, 2021.
Compared to Yang Jiechi, Wang Yi’s rhetoric was the most strident that day. In addition to criticizing and condemning the U.S. side, he also referred to the “New Year’s Eve call” between Xi and Biden, saying, “The consensus reached between the two sides has pointed the way for China-U.S. relations to get back on track. The international community is highly concerned about our dialogue here, about whether each side can really show sincerity and goodwill, and about whether we can send a positive and upbeat signal to the world from here.”
In an earlier interview with this station, Wu Qiang had expected no progress to be made in this high-level U.S.-China dialogue. He still thinks so today. Wu Qiang went on to say, “It will only convince both sides how wide and deep the differences that exist between the two sides are, and it should be a turning point for the U.S. and China to move toward a new Cold War. Both sides will follow these talks with intensified long-term preparations that Beijing may have to make for a second Pacific war against the United States.”
Toughing up abroad to agitate against U.S. self-aggrandizement
Taiyuan international relations scholar Zhang Yong told the station that it has been proven many times that the tougher Chinese officials are with the U.S., the more anti-American sentiment is stirred up among the people: “The tougher you are, the more popular you are, and the more you can stir up the so-called national pride inside and outside the Chinese Party. Being tough on foreign countries has also become the CCP’s political correctness. In this case, just show the party and outside that we are tough and, in Xi Jinping’s words, be men. This is invariably interpreted by the mouthpieces as China being strong. For China to talk to the U.S., no matter how it ends, he has a set of explanations.”
Wu Qiang believes that in the national view this dialogue between China and the United States has moved away from the path of resolving differences and is more like a diplomatic war, citing the example during the Vietnam War: “Vietnam’s foreign minister ignored the rules of the game at the Paris peace talks and spoke at length about empty nonsense, a typical kind of peace talks in a state of war and a war-wolf posture.”
Some scholars believe that Chinese Communist diplomats have used the venue of the dialogue between the two countries as a battlefield for propaganda this time, which is a characteristic of communist countries. But the use of diplomacy as propaganda will cause China to lose international support.
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