On Feb. 14, 2012, then-Chinese Communist Party Vice President Xi Jinping held talks with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
The Wall Street Journal published an editorial on December 18, suggesting that the arrest of Next Media founder Lai Chi-ying and other Hong Kong democrats was Beijing’s test of Biden to see if Biden and his team had a different reaction than the Trump administration. The article argues that for now Xi should be happy with Biden’s vague response.
The article mentions that Li Zhiying angered Beijing with his trip to Washington in 2019. He met with U.S. political figures, including Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He now faces multiple charges, and Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece Ta Kung Pao says he should be extradited to the mainland to stand trial. His friends fear it would be a death sentence for the 72-year-old.
Lai was denied bail after his arrest, and images of him in shackles have been released. The report suggests that Xi hopes to silence the Hong Kong people through intimidation and to test the reaction of Biden and his team. China scholar Perry Link, a Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Riverside, said, “By publicly picking on Li Zhiying, it may be that Beijing wants to see how things will play out. So far, Xi must be pleased with Biden’s lack of response, the article said.
One of the Trump administration’s achievements has been to acknowledge that China has become a major adversary of the United States. The Chinese Communist Party steals U.S. technology, monitors U.S. college campuses, intimidates critics, engages in massive espionage and threatens U.S. allies in Taiwan and Australia. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has pushed back on a range of fronts, from condemning the Communist Party’s detention of Uighurs to sanctioning officials responsible for the crackdown in Hong Kong.
Biden himself has not responded to any of the Communist Party’s actions, and his team’s response has been vague. Jake Sullivan, Biden’s nominee for national adviser, only tweeted last week that he was concerned about the “continued arrest and imprisonment of pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong,” but did not name anyone.
In another bad sign, the article mentions that John Kerry, whose career has been marked by appeasing U.S. opponents, has been nominated by Biden as his climate envoy, with the most important goal of getting the Chinese Communist Party to agree to commit on climate parchment. The Chinese Communist Party, in turn, traded this for U.S. silence on the Communist Party’s bullying of Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The article also mentions that the arrest of Lai Chi-ying has given Hong Kong people with U.S. citizenship reason to worry about the risks they face. Chi-Ying Lai, who also holds British citizenship, is unable to enjoy consular protection in Hong Kong because the CCP does not recognize dual citizenship, and “Hong Kong people with U.S. citizenship are now noticing that the passports they hold do not protect them, so what would happen if one of them were arrested?”
The article concludes that the CCP will continue its bullying, stealing secrets, and suppressing dissent in Hong Kong and elsewhere as long as Xi Jinping believes it will cost nothing, and it is not just the fate of Lai Chi-ying that is at stake. If Biden intends to be in a good position to take on Beijing, Biden should make a strong statement early on.
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