After not appearing in public for more than 10 days, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), yesterday (April 14) accepted the presentation of the credentials of the new ambassadors of 29 countries to China at the Great Hall in Beijing. The current Politburo Standing Committee members Wang Huning and Zhao Leji, who have also been invisible for more than 10 days, are still missing. Among the other Standing Committee members who showed up, Li Keqiang was the most active, as he attended a video dialogue with U.S. business leaders and again stressed that “decoupling is not good for China and the U.S.”. Some experts said that compared with Yang Jiechi’s black face in Alaska last time, Li Keqiang was singing a white face this time.
According to a report by Xinhua News Agency on 14th, the new ambassadors of Japan, Britain, North Korea and other 29 countries in China presented their credentials to Xi Jinping on the same day.
This comes after Xi did not appear in public for several days, sparking speculation about health problems. An article in Hong Kong’s Ming Pao on April 14 said that Xi Jinping last appeared in public on April 3 when he and six other members of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party’s Political Bureau attended a tree-planting event in Beijing, a rare occurrence for 11 consecutive days without a public appearance.
The report noted that along with Xi Jinping, Wang Huning, the executive secretary of the CPC Central Committee’s Secretariat, and Zhao Leji, the secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, were also “invisible” for a longer period of time. The report suggested that if Xi’s absence was not due to health problems, it was not known whether it was related to the drafting of documents related to the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC and the preparation of documents for the Sixth Plenary Session of the CPC.
After Xi’s appearance on the 14th, our correspondent found that Wang Huning, who is in charge of propaganda and ideology, and Zhao Leji, who is in charge of anti-corruption, have still not shown up.
The two have a yang and a yin relationship, and Xi’s full left turn is also said to be related to Wang Huning’s planning.
Other high ranking officials of the CCP Standing Committee level are more openly present. The Chinese government has been in the midst of a series of protests against the implementation of the “National Unified Textbook”, which has sparked protests in Inner Mongolia, and demanded the popularization of Chinese language teaching.
Li Keqiang has a lot to do, in addition to April 9, hosted Han Zheng also participated in the economic situation experts and entrepreneurs forum, 13 attended a video dialogue with U.S. business leaders, the 14th meeting of the State Council executive meeting.
Among them, according to the Chinese government website reported on the 13th, Li Keqiang attended the video dialogue with the U.S. business leaders in Zhongnanhai Ziguang Pavilion on that day.
Li Keqiang claimed that “decoupling” would not be beneficial to China and the United States. He said, “I hope both sides will move in the same direction, promote cooperation by making the cake of common interests bigger, and maintain the security and stability of the industrial chain supply chain”.
Li Chun, deputy executive director of the WTO Center of the Chinese Academy of Economic Research in Taiwan, pointed out in an interview with Radio Free Asia on March 14 that the Chinese Communist government has been using a two-handed strategy. When attending the U.S.-China high-level meeting in Alaska in March, Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the Central Foreign Affairs Office, gave a 17-minute speech to the U.S. Secretary of State and the National Security Advisor; this time, Li Keqiang’s speech was aimed at the U.S. business community and was based on the pursuit of profits.
Yang Jiechi’s arrogant performance in Alaska last time, including speaking for 17 minutes by himself without an interpreter, and saying “Chinese people don’t eat this”, caused consternation in the international community. Foreigners believe that he was instructed by Xi Jinping to speak to domestic pinkos in order to stir up nationalist sentiment in the country.
Li Jun said Yang Jiechi played black face last time, while Li Keqiang played white face this time. Li Chun said, “It’s black face and white face! Last time, Yang Jiechi was a bit over (too much), a bit like an old man lecturing his son, so of course Li Keqiang has to fix him back some. More importantly, they may have had a little expectation for Biden to see if he would ease up, but now it seems that Biden not only has no signs of easing up, but also seems to be more fully applying the concept of ‘global siege of China’ as described by (Taiwan’s Caixin Media Chairman) Xie Jinhe. China now has to take a very tough stance on the one hand, so that no one can point the finger at it; and on the other hand, it has to assume the attitude of welcoming money from all over the world to invest in China, in order to respond comprehensively to the current challenges facing the CCP.”
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and the powerful General Secretary Xi Jinping have been paired in recent years with repeated incongruous moves released publicly in the official media, which outsiders say is an infighting between Xi and Li.
According to an earlier article by commentator Situ Jian, infighting is in the nature of the Chinese Communist Party, which is characterized by “fighting”, and it would be strange not to fight. Compared with Xi Jinping, who has a red family background, Li Keqiang can only give in to weakness and cannot fight. He is currently just muddling along, standing on his feet by singing a double act with Xi. Li Keqiang’s specialty is to sing the white face.
Commentator Yang Wei writes that during his eight years as premier, Li Keqiang was unable to intervene directly in U.S. relations and basically did not make speeches specifically aimed at the United States, among other things. Xi Jinping’s so-called head of state diplomacy, Li Keqiang basically did not participate directly, and at most may only be a sidekick. Li Keqiang’s sudden appearance this time makes it difficult to confirm whether some kind of change has occurred within the CCP.
Yang Wei’s article says that Li Keqiang’s video dialogue with U.S. business leaders is a rare appearance to put a soft shout to the United States. It is because the stalemate in Sino-US relations has resurfaced, and the top echelon of the CCP has no choice but to put Li Keqiang on the forefront of US relations.
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