On September 3, 2020, General Secretary Xi Jinping personally emphasized that “the Chinese people will never agree” to the various international condemnations of the Chinese Communist Party (Photo credit: video screenshot)
The two-day Sino-US high-level dialogue ended in Alaska on March 18 and 19. The two sides of the meeting, led by Yang Jiechi and Blinken, respectively, opened with full force, but the details of the final closed-door meeting were unknown to the outside world. The official media of the Communist Party of China (CPC) emphasized after the meeting that the Chinese side stressed that “the ruling status of the CPC cannot be compromised”. Some Hong Kong media analyzed this as a response to the Trump administration’s previous practice of distinguishing between the Chinese people and the Chinese Communist Party. At the Time, this had triggered a personal outburst from the Communist Party’s general secretary, who stressed that he “would never agree” to this. China watchers in the United States believe that this is the bottom line and the “core concern” of the Chinese Communist Party in the high-level talks between China and the United States.
The U.S.-China Alaska Dialogue is a firestorm, but what was discussed behind closed doors? Chinese official media exposed China’s “core concerns”.
What was discussed at the closed-door meeting between the U.S. and China? Official Media Expose “Core Concerns”
The U.S. and China did not have a joint statement or a joint press conference after the talks, according to comprehensive international media reports. Secretary of State John Blinken, a representative of the U.S. side, issued a brief post-meeting statement to the media, saying that the U.S. side raised the issues of Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Tibet, Taiwan and cyber attacks with the Chinese side during the meeting and that, not surprisingly, the Chinese side once again took a contradictory response to those topics. But Blinken stressed that the two sides did have a frank dialogue on a wide range of topics, and that U.S. and Chinese interests are intertwined on Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan and climate issues.
Well-known commentator Paul Lin told the station that what we saw on the surface of this U.S.-China talks were both sides putting on a show, and the key was the content of the final closed-door meeting. He is not optimistic about the outcome of this first high-level U.S.-China talks under the Biden administration, and believes that the U.S. should show hard power like the Trump Administration did in the past for the relationship to radically improve in the future.
According to a report by Xinhua, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese side stressed at the meeting that the ruling status and institutional security of the Communist Party of China cannot be undermined, and that “this is a red line that cannot be touched. China urged the U.S. side to “eliminate the influence of the previous administration’s erroneous policy toward China,” claiming that the CCP’s ruling status “is the choice of history and the choice of the people. The Chinese side also said that “the leading role of the CPC and the central position of the Party leader” are “heartily supported by 1.4 billion Chinese people,” and so on.
In response, Chen Jiangang, a Chinese rights lawyer in exile in the United States, tweeted, “The picture is exhausted, and this is the bottom line.”
The system and security of the slave-owning group collectively being emperors is the ever-present bottom line, red line and core interest of this organization! https://t.co/Zhuqmht9sb
- Straight Talk (@WENBO92601009) March 20, 2021
U.S.-based political and economic analyst Qin Peng also posted: “In fact, this is the real and only concern of the Chinese Communist Party. In the CCP’s own words, it’s called: core concerns.”
Netizens followed up with, “The system and security of the slave-owning group collectively being The Emperor is the organization’s ever-present bottom line, red line and core interest!” “They know that once the cards are flipped, the common people at the bottom will not rest until they are flayed alive!”
“The emperor’s dream is haunted!”
“Fragile items that cannot be touched.”
“The power to cut the leeks is their core interest.”
“The arrival of that day is bound to take away all their illegally acquired.”
“As long as this remains unchanged, anything else can be negotiated can be sold!”
“That’s the old truth, the big truth.”
“This is called the unification of all the ages and the eternal reign of the kingdom. How I look at this paragraph, it all looks like the rogue bandit set.”
“This has never been a secret, there is no such thing as a figure of speech.”
“The most fundamental interests of the communist bandits ….”
“Two years ago and classmates discuss, they always say what Food security is the bottom line, I said don’t bullshit, the regime security is the bottom line. As long as we can keep the regime, who cares about the flood?”
“Even if the people eat grass! It’s not that they haven’t done it in history, and it’s not that they haven’t let their words slip recently.”
“Various reforms in the Qing Dynasty, always emphasizing the unshakeable position of the Qing royal Family, the Qing Emperor ruling the country. In the end, they all turned into a bubble in the long history.”
In response to the Trump administration’s distinction between the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people
The pro-Beijing Hong Kong media, Sing Tao Daily, cited an analysis that said it was quite rare for China to talk at length about the ruling Chinese Communist Party in a diplomatic dialogue. This is related to Trump administration officials’ increasing attacks on the Chinese Communist Party and their efforts to distinguish between the “Chinese Communist Party” and the “Chinese people.
Before the U.S.-China Alaska dialogue, the Wall Street Journal cited sources familiar with the plans as saying that Beijing intends to pressure Washington to roll back many of the policies implemented against China during the Trump presidency when senior U.S. and Chinese Communist Party officials meet for their first face-to-face meeting since Biden took office. Among the measures China wants the U.S. to roll back are U.S. sales restrictions on Chinese companies such as huawei and SMIC, visa restrictions on Communist Party members, Chinese students and state media reporters, and the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston.
But it did not occur to the outside world at the time that the central concern of the Chinese Communist Party in the talks was its so-called “core” ruling position in China.
One of the major shifts in the Trump administration’s China Policy is to distinguish between the Chinese people and the CCP. Numerous Trump administration officials and U.S. lawmakers have made public statements that clearly separate the CCP from China and the Chinese people and support Chinese resistance to CCP tyranny. The most obvious example is Secretary of State Mike Pompeo‘s China policy speech at the former President Nixon Memorial Library on July 23 of last year.
Pompeo argued at the time that a more creative and forceful approach must be taken to induce change in the CCP. Countries should change their views on China and act to bring about change by going directly to the Chinese people.
Xi Jinping Fumes “No Way”
The Trump administration’s statement that “China is not the same as the Chinese Communist Party” appears to have triggered a chain reaction from the Chinese Communist authorities. After a number of diplomatic officials spoke out on the issue, Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping, at a symposium on the 75th anniversary of the War of Resistance against Chinese Aggression on September 3, 2020, also took a personal role in the international condemnation of the Chinese Communist Party, emphasizing that the five “Chinese people will never agree” to this, including “any person or force The Chinese people will never agree to any attempt by any person or force to divide and confront the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people”.
Xi’s speech was seen as a kind of tantrum, but his words, even on the tightly controlled microblogging site, were met with some skepticism, with one netizen saying, “Have you asked the people about these things?” “First vindicate those unjust and false cases, and their makers to deal with, and then deal with the big corruption that can easily be more than a billion, and then shout slogans, so that it is easy to be convinced.” “Push the wall down and let Chinese netizens rush out to defend China’s image.”
Xi’s comments also sparked fierce criticism from netizens on overseas Twitter: “The uninformed masses say they have always been represented, never expressed their will, and agreed and thanked anyone who could lift the kidnapping!” “Shame on you, kidnapping the Chinese people again. Want freedom of speech, never agree. Want historical truth, never promise. To have popular elections, never promise. To have real democracy, never promise. To have the Communist Party step down, never promise.”
The stability of Xi’s power position is also in question
In addition, Xinhua’s report on the U.S.-China talks in Alaska also mentions that “the core position of the Party leader” is embraced by the people, which clearly points to the preservation of Xi Jinping’s core position.
In February, a former U.S. official who has since left office but reportedly has “extensive experience in China affairs” wrote a lengthy, anonymously-worded recommendation to the Biden Administration that the new U.S. strategy toward China should explicitly target Xi Jinping, the Communist Party’s general secretary, and distinguish between the 91 million members of the Communist Party and Xi Jinping’s core Xi family army. Some commentators have taken this as an implication that the new U.S. strategy is to help the CCP replace Xi Jinping.
History scholar Xin Hao-nian has previously said publicly that he favors Xi’s ouster, but that the CCP must step down, not Xi alone.
Next year is traditionally the year when the CCP convenes its 20th National Congress for a change in the top echelon, and outside observers believe that Xi is laying the groundwork for re-election as infighting intensifies at the top of the CCP.
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