On March 24, reports of Xi Jinping‘s visit to Fujian continued to dominate the headlines of the Communist Party’s major media outlets. Xi Jinping has been in Fujian for three days, but the party media reports were largely sparse, using only a few large pictures to show how personal Xi Jinping is and how crowded he is. The pictures show Xi Jinping with a smile on his face, seemingly satisfied, but in the face of the rapidly deteriorating international situation, can such leisurely visits by Xi cover up his inner concerns?
The U.S.-China talks have failed to improve, and Xi’s wish for an early meeting with Biden has been dashed; Sino-Japanese relations are at a low ebb again; India has further leaned on the U.S. militarily; South Korea and the U.S. have renewed their military agreement; the EU and the Five Eyes Alliance countries have unanimously imposed sanctions and condemnation on the CCP, but the CCP has to stand firm and retaliate; the China-EU Investment Agreement has been put on hold; countries have summoned Chinese ambassadors, and it looks like European-Chinese relations are also at an impasse. Yet Xi Jinping is still on a leisurely tour of Fujian, which is unusual in itself.
It is impossible that people around Xi Jinping do not know which is more important: China-US relations, Europe relations or Fujian visit. Or, is Xi Jinping really confident that he can get rid of the U.S. and Western countries with his war-wolf diplomacy?
In other countries, a head of state in a similar situation would have immediately interrupted the mission to discuss countermeasures with his cabinet members, but Xi Jinping continued his mission without much substance. Perhaps Xi Jinping met privately with other Politburo Standing Committee members via video, or perhaps he simply did not communicate. If Yang Jiechi, Wang Yi and the Chinese Foreign Ministry did not have instructions from Xi Jinping, they would not have dared to repeatedly speak out and retaliate against the EU on their own initiative. Xi Jinping seems to continue his visit as if nothing is wrong, but in reality he shows that there is nothing he can do for the Time being, and he cannot explain himself.
The Chinese Communist Party invited the Russian foreign minister to visit China, but arranged for him to visit Guilin instead of Beijing; Xi Jinping did not even give face to the Russian foreign minister and did not even have a courtesy meeting, but said how close the strategic partnership between China and Russia was, which in reality was completely exposed. After the meeting, the Russian and Chinese foreign ministers issued a statement, but did not announce the schedule of high-level meetings between Xi and Putin.
The Chinese Communist Party called the U.S. and Japan “lopsided”, indicating both hatred and annoyance. The US-Japan quadrilateral summit video conference was immediately followed by 2+2 talks between the US and Japan, and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is planning to go to the US to meet with Biden in April, which is the pace of real allies. In contrast, the Sino-Russian embrace is more symbolic and without much substance in terms of cooperation. The high-profile head of state diplomacy promoted by the CCP has not gone well between China and Russia, let alone with other countries.
On March 24, the Chinese Communist Party’s Xinhua News Agency published an article entitled “Foreign Ministry: Completely Unacceptable to the Unreasonable Practices of Some European Countries in Summoning Chinese Ambassadors”, which said that the Chinese Foreign Ministry should not have received updated instructions from Xi Jinping, and could not easily soften its position to the outside world, but of course would continue to play the role of a War Wolf. The Chinese Communist Party’s retaliatory sanctions have caused trouble and triggered diplomatic incidents with European countries, but it said it “does not provoke trouble, does not provoke trouble, and is not afraid of trouble”.
On the same day, Xinhua News Agency also authorized the publication of another article, “Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2020”. With the CCP striking out at both the U.S. and the EU, the CCP’s Foreign Ministry should not know how it will end up. While Xi Jinping could continue his inspection activities, CCP Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying could not resist.
At the March 24 press conference of the CCP Foreign Ministry, the issue of sanctions for the CCP’s persecution of human rights became the main theme, and the always frantic Hua Chunying was unable to defend herself, but could only try to blast the Western countries for their human rights problems. Some reporters immediately asked, “Your comments on the human rights situation in other countries contradict the Chinese Communist Party’s statement or “no country has the right to interfere in China’s internal affairs”. What is your explanation for this? Hua Chunying apparently lost her composure and asked the reporter which country she was from.
At the press conference on March 23, Hua also tried to cite historical human rights violations by Western countries. A reporter followed up by asking whether China believed that since these countries had committed human rights violations in the past, the Chinese Communist Party could do the same. Hua Chunying had to say that these are two different things. In the face of this diplomatic storm created by the Chinese Communist Party, the old war wolf Hua Chunying couldn’t help herself.
Xi Jinping’s apparent continuation of the tour actually reflects the dilemma of being at his wits’ end. He and his think-tank need to think not only about how to close the deal with the EU, the US and other countries, but also about how to smooth out the latest doubts within the party. The rare U.S.-China talks, which might have had a chance to ease relations, have fallen apart, and now there is a sudden impasse with the EU, with the Communist Party pushing neighboring countries one by one toward the U.S. and the EU and the U.S. stepping up their coordination, so how to make up the story, Xi’s think tanks will have to scratch their heads again.
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