At the recently concluded high-level talks between China and the United States, there was no more surprising remark than the one made by Yang Jiechi, director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Communist Party of China and member of the Politburo, who said, “The Chinese don’t eat this stuff. The phrase instantly became an Internet buzzword in China, with netizens making up sentences to tease and ridicule it.
In the opening remarks of the U.S.-China talks, Yang Jiechi defied the two-minute Time limit agreed upon by the two sides and spoke for nearly 17 minutes in one breath to criticize the United States, causing public outcry.
After U.S. Secretary of State Blinken and Security Adviser Sullivan retorted, Yang Jiechi became even more furious, saying, “I am now saying that you are not qualified to say in front of China that you talk to China from a position of strength. 20 or 30 years ago you would not have had this position, because the Chinese do not eat this.”
The remarks, which were considered far beyond the diplomatic bottom line, also instantly became a hot word on the Chinese internet, with netizens making sentences to tease.
“The Chinese don’t eat this set (American set), they only eat bubble noodles.”
“China doesn’t eat the American set, only the Mao Zedong Cultural Revolution set.”
“China does not eat this set of the United States, eat three years of famine died 30 million people that set.”
“China does not eat the United States, eat Family planning classes that set.”
“China doesn’t eat the American way, it eats the urban-rural apartheid way.”
“Chinese people do not eat this set, the people are afraid to speak, they are this group, how always kidnapped we Chinese people.”
Radio Free Asia’s “In Your Ear” column commented in an article that although the netizens’ comments were only jokes, the vast majority of intelligent Chinese people understand that the Chinese Communist regime and the Chinese people are two different things, and it is a fact that the Chinese people have suffered a lot from the Chinese Communist Party!
The article cited an article in last year’s June 14 People’s Daily, “The friendship between the people of China and the United States is unstoppable”, which teased that Yang Jiechi was “determined to create trouble for China-US relations” and that the “friendship between the people of the two countries”, which was originally “unstoppable”, was suddenly replaced by his “friendship between the people of the two countries”. Should we believe Yang Jiechi or should we believe People’s Daily?
The article also points out that Yang Jiechi’s remarks indirectly acknowledge that the United States stands on the moral high ground of democracy and human rights; otherwise, how can we conclude that the United States is “superior”? Regardless of whether there are human rights and democracy in the United States, Yang has at least acknowledged the existence of democracy and human rights as a universal value in principle! I wonder if this is a “ghost pat on the back of the head”?
After the talks, the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece Xinhua reported that the Chinese side stressed at the meeting that the ruling status of the Chinese Communist Party and the security of the system cannot be compromised, 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,” saying the CPC’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.
The pro-Beijing Hong Kong media, Sing Tao Daily, quoted an analysis saying that it is quite rare for the Chinese side to talk at length about the ruling Communist Party of China in a diplomatic dialogue. This is related to the fact that Trump administration officials have been stepping up their attacks on the Chinese Communist Party and are committed to distinguishing the “Chinese Communist Party” from the “Chinese people”.
In October 2019, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo began making a clear distinction between the “Chinese Communist Party” and the “Chinese people” during a speech at the Hudson Institute. He said, “We have a tradition of friendly relations with the Chinese people, and we still do today… But I must say that the Chinese Communist government today is not the same as the Chinese people.”
In November of the same year, Pompeo, while attending a commemoration in Berlin to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, again stated his belief that the Chinese are “smart and capable” and that the conflict between the U.S. and China is only between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party.
In June 2020, Robert O’Brien, then White House national security adviser, gave a speech in Phoenix, Arizona, in which he emphasized that the Trump Administration was reversing past misguided U.S. policies toward China and made clear that the Chinese Communist Party was not the same as the Chinese people.
In July of the same year, Pompeo said in a speech in California that the Chinese Communist Party does not represent the 1.4 billion Chinese people, who are vibrant, freedom-loving and completely different from the Chinese Communist Party. “Communists almost always lie. One of the biggest lies they tell is that they want people to believe it is speaking for the 1.4 billion people who are too spied on, too oppressed and too intimidated to speak the truth.”
In addition to its public statements, the Trump administration has taken practical action to distinguish between the “Chinese Communist Party” and the “Chinese people.” Last year, the USCIS released new immigration policy guidelines stating that members of the Communist Party and other totalitarian political parties are prohibited from seeking permanent resident status and citizenship in the United States unless special permission is granted.
Subsequently, the U.S. State Department issued new regulations restricting travel to the U.S. by Communist Party members and their immediate family members, and reducing the validity of visas for Communist Party members and their immediate family members to visit relatives in the U.S. from the previous 10 years to one month, and limiting them to a single entry.
Pompeo then issued a statement noting that those banned from entering the U.S. include Chinese Communist Party officials and individuals actively involved in the activities of the United Front Work Department.
The Chinese Communist Party has reacted strongly to the U.S. distinction between the “Chinese Communist Party” and the “Chinese people. Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, Zhao Lijian, and Wang Wenbin have all declared that the CCP and the Chinese people are “inseparably linked by flesh and blood.
On August 24, 2020, the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece Xinhua News Agency published a lengthy article stating that Pompeo “maliciously attacked the leadership of the CPC and the Chinese political system, and provoked the link between the CPC and the Chinese people.
On September 3, 2020, Xi Jinping, attending a symposium to commemorate the so-called “75th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War,” said, “Any attempt by any force to divide and oppose the CPC and the Chinese people will never be accepted by the Chinese people! “
According to the analysis cited by the French broadcaster, Beijing’s top brass is so sensitive to the U.S. initiative and is quick to accuse the U.S. of provoking “fish-water relations”, which means that the U.S. has pinpointed the weakness of the Beijing regime: today’s CCP has long been a powerful, interest group, and there is no so-called fish-water relationship with the people who cannot choose who will rule them, so the ties between them are far from The ties between the Communist Party and the people, who cannot choose who rules them, are therefore far from strong, as the authorities claim.
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