Last week, I noted here that the U.S. sanctioning of Chinese and Hong Kong officials over Hong Kong before the high-level U.S.-China talks in Alaska, Blinken calling Taiwan a “country,” and Biden‘s attendance at the Indo-Pacific Quadripartite Summit, which was aimed directly at China, signaled that the U.S. meeting in Alaska would take a hard-line stance and that the talks would not be harmonious.
I would have thought that Chinese Communist Party officials would be smart enough to lower their posture during the talks and put on an appearance full of goodwill, so that the U.S. side with its tough posture would appear as if it is aggressive and create the impression in international public opinion that China is very well-meaning and that the U.S. is bullying China. As a result, Yang Jiechi, still a War Wolf, spent 16 minutes to preach to the U.S. side about China’s history of being bullied and besieged by the Western powers, lectured that the U.S. would only suffer itself by besieging China, criticized the U.S. for discriminating against blacks on human rights issues, etc. after the U.S. side raised its concerns about Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Taiwan issues and China’s bullying of U.S. allies in a brief opening speech, rambling and seriously overstaying its Time.
Guns were fired at the opening, and there was no joint announcement at the end of the meeting, except that each side coldly indicated to reporters that the talks had been constructive. This stalemate sets the tone for the Biden Administration‘s interactions with China in the coming years. Yang’s performance caused exuberance among the Chinese pinkies, and Taobao was quick to feature Yang’s “golden words”, “The Chinese don’t eat this” and “The United States is not qualified to speak condescendingly to China”. T-shirts and cell phone cases designed by Yang. The Chinese ambassador to ASEAN, Deng Xijun, even used official Twitter to promote the goods.
But pinky exuberance is still exuberant, China’s performance in the talks, reflecting their false timidity. Before the meeting, the Chinese side kept emphasizing that the meeting was a “high-level strategic dialogue between China and the United States,” which Blinken had denied before the meeting. After the meeting, the official Chinese media insisted on calling it a “strategic dialogue,” as if they were afraid that the Chinese public would know that the U.S. had downgraded the meeting.
The official Chinese media only reported Yang Jiechi’s and Wang Yi’s War Wolf speeches, and did not mention a word about the U.S. response that the U.S. is a self-confident country that is constantly introspective and improving. During the Cultural Revolution, when the official media criticized the reactionaries, they would still quote the original text of the other side and criticize them one by one. Now the official media dare not even mention what the other side said, so it seems they do not have much confidence in their own views.
What’s more, Yang Jiechi turned his brief opening speech into a time-out speech, showing the world the true face of War Wolf’s unruly rampage, and this time it was not the Chinese ambassador to a certain country or a spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but the top party official in charge of foreign affairs of the Communist Party. We all know whether the world’s Perception of the Chinese government will become better or worse after this incident.
After the Alaska confrontation, Blinken will be traveling to Europe to discuss major issues with America’s NATO allies, including, of course, China. Europe, under the influence of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has been pursuing a policy of strengthening relations with China to balance the United States. Earlier, the EU and China reached a consensus on a comprehensive investment agreement between Europe and China before Biden took office, which was seen as a major obstacle in the U.S. European system. But after the text of the agreement came to light, it was attacked from all sides in Europe, and Merkel’s party recently lost local elections, reducing Merkel’s influence. It is increasingly uncertain whether the agreement will finally be adopted in Europe and national parliaments.
More interestingly, the European Union announced on Monday (March 22) that it has sanctioned four Chinese Communist Party officials over human rights issues in Xinjiang. The sanctioned officials are only local officials who implement the policy, not to mention their Family members. While many commentators questioned the EU sanctions as a toothless tiger, or even a perfunctory release of water to China, Beijing surprisingly took the plunge and introduced retaliatory sanctions that are many times more severe, including sanctions against EU officials, parliamentarians, parliamentary institutions, and even important European think tanks studying China. This move by China immediately drew an outcry from the European dynasties.
Beijing’s heavy-handed approach to Europe on the eve of Blinken’s visit has helped the U.S. in its plan to unite Europe and China. The prospects for a comprehensive investment agreement between Europe and China have, of course, become even bleaker. Beijing’s recent series of actions against the United States and Europe, whether it is a manifestation of self-confidence, or is a panic out of brute force to fight indiscriminately, it is up to everyone to judge.
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