Just as the media was focusing on Xi Jinping’s invisibility, Xi showed up on the 14th to meet with ambassadors from 29 countries at the Great Hall in Beijing. And the day before Xi’s appearance, there was a rare softening of the stance towards the United States, from Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to War Wolf diplomats. Li Keqiang even bitterly urged the U.S. not to decouple from the CCP economy.
The Communist Party’s Xinhua News Agency reported on the 14th that the new ambassadors of Afghanistan, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Madagascar, Sudan, Nepal and 29 other countries in China presented their credentials to Xi Jinping in turn and conveyed greetings from their leaders. Xi Jinping delivered a speech and posed for a group photo with them.
A day earlier, Hong Kong media outlet Ming Pao published an op-ed saying that Xi had not been seen in public since April 2, when he participated in a tree-planting event in Beijing, until April 13.
During that period, Xi spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the phone on the 7th, but only through a non-video call, with no sign of her.
During this period, the official media continued to report news about Xi, but it was all about Xi’s external messages and instructions, which did not require Xi’s personal appearance or even his hand.
The report also said that Xi’s absence for 11 consecutive days was due to either health problems or “important business”.
As July 1 is the centenary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping will deliver an important speech; in October, the Chinese Communist Party will hold the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee. Therefore, the Hong Kong media analysis believes that Xi Jinping, during this time of invisibility, may be thinking about these two major events.
The other two members of the CPC Standing Committee who are “invisible” together with Xi are Wang Huning and Zhao Leji. It is not known whether this is related to the drafting of relevant documents and the preparation of documents for the Sixth Plenary Session.
The Chinese Communist Party unifies its voice and asks the West not to disassociate itself
It is interesting to note that the day before Xi Jinping’s appearance on April 14, everyone from CCP Premier Li Keqiang to the Development and Reform Commission to the CCP ambassador to Canada softened their stance to draw in the West.
On April 13, Li attended a networking meeting of U.S. business leaders, including the U.S.-China National Trade Council and the chairmen and CEOs of more than 20 leading U.S. multinationals. Li Keqiang urged them not to decouple from the Chinese Communist Party’s economy, saying that “decoupling” would benefit no one and promising that the Communist Party’s “door to opening up to the outside world will only get wider and wider.
On the same day, Chinese Ambassador Cong Peiwu, speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in Montreal, also expressed “concern” about the growing calls in the West to decouple from the CCP and suggested that the CCP should “strengthen cooperation” with Canada.
The National Development and Reform Commission of the Communist Party of China (NDRC) held a roundtable meeting with top U.S. companies in China on the 13th, and said it would “unswervingly expand opening up to the outside world. The invitees included executives from Tesla, Qualcomm, Dell and other U.S. companies.
Bloomberg said it was a rare act, as the agency had never had a similar dialogue with U.S. companies before.
Iris Pang, an economic researcher at ING in Hong Kong, believes that the Chinese Communist Party hopes to use these meetings to show the U.S. government that China is a huge market for U.S. companies.
The global supply chain is being restructured and the world economic and trade landscape is changing due to the CCP’s geopolitical expansion, concealment of epidemics, and espionage, which have led to a loss of international trust in recent years.
Commentator Yang Wei writes that during Li Keqiang’s eight years as premier, he was unable to intervene directly in relations with the U.S., and basically would not speak against the U.S. The reason for Li’s sudden appearance to shout softly at the U.S. is that the stalemate in Sino-U.S. relations has resurfaced, and the top echelon of the Chinese Communist Party has no choice but to push Li to the forefront as well.
The outside world found that Li Keqiang has already called on the U.S. more than once to “not decouple”. China expert Zhang Jiadun has analyzed that Li believes it is impossible to decouple the U.S. and Chinese economies, but if decoupling is the only way to end the CCP’s theft of U.S. intellectual property, then it is certainly possible for the U.S. to choose to decouple. Li is clearly concerned that the U.S. will decouple.
Commentator Yuan Bin believes that if the U.S. and China decouple, the U.S. will quickly recover from the pain by adjusting its industrial chain and market development strategy globally. But if the CCP loses the U.S. market, especially the U.S. high technology, and if it is then kicked out of the U.S. dollar settlement system, it would be fatal to the CCP economy.
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