In recent high-level U.S.-China talks, Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi’s tough “performance” has received international attention.
Yang Jiechi belongs to the Jiang faction, and his promotion to key positions more than a decade ago was tied to his cozying up to former Communist Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin. In recent years, Yang has gradually begun to play the role of a “war wolf” in diplomacy, and his tone of voice is very different from that of his predecessors.
After the U.S.-China Alaska talks, Yang Jiechi sang “The Lonely Man” on the Internet
After Biden took power, the U.S. and China held high-level talks in Alaska on March 18. Yang Jiechi, director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), spoke overtime in his opening remarks, which lasted 17 minutes. Yang also said, “The Chinese don’t eat this” and “Have we suffered more from the foreigners?” and so on.
Many media analyzed after the meeting that Yang Jiechi’s anti-US toughness in Alaska was actually a show for the domestic public.
After this dialogue, a video of Yang Jiechi singing the Suzhou opera was circulated on overseas networks. In 2005, Yang Jiechi, then Vice Foreign Minister of the Communist Party of China (CPC), sang Jiang Yuequan’s “Recognizing Mother in the Nunnery” at an event: “Who in the world does not have a mother? Pity me, but I am a lonely and miserable person ……”
After the U.S.-China High-level Dialogue, a video of Yang Jiechi singing the Suzhou Folk Song was circulated on the Internet overseas. (Screenshot of the video)
According to Li Linyi, a current affairs commentator, Yang Jiechi just showed toughness to the United States, and then suddenly a video of Yang singing “Lingling and lonely man” appeared, which confirmed the outside world’s view that Yang is good at “acting”.
Yang Jiechi’s resume shows that from 1998 to 2000, Yang served as Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of the CPC; from 2000 to 2004, Ambassador to the United States; from 2004 to 2005, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs; from 2005 to 2007, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee; from 2007 to 2013, Minister of Foreign Affairs; from 2013 to 2017, State Councillor and Director of the Central Foreign Affairs Work Leading Group Office; in 2017, Yang became a member of the Politburo; from 2018 to the present, member of the Central Politburo and Director of the Office of the Central Committee for Foreign Affairs.
In 2001, Yang Jiechi helped Jiang break the deadlock in the plane crash incident
Yang Jiechi’s key promotion in his career was related to Jiang Zemin, then General Secretary of the Communist Party of China.
In the Sino-US plane crash 20 years ago, Yang helped Jiang break the deadlock in the United States, a major task Yang did for Jiang.
On April 1, 2001, a Chinese J-8 fighter jet intercepted a U.S. EP-3E reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea, resulting in a collision between the two sides and the disappearance of the Chinese pilot. The U.S. reconnaissance aircraft then made an emergency landing at Lingshui Airport on Hainan Island, and the 24 U.S. crew members were detained.
After the incident, the U.S. and China were once at an impasse over responsibility for the incident.
According to Wu Jianmin, a former Chinese diplomat, in his book Diplomatic Cases, after the crash, the Chinese Central Committee finalized the principle of “separation of man and aircraft” on April 2. The main reasons were: “First, if the 24 Americans were detained in China for too long at this time, it would cause strong resentment among the American public; second, Easter (April 20) was approaching in the United States, which is a very important holiday in the United States, and if the American crew could not be reunited with their families by then, it would also cause the American public to resent me and adversely affect China’s diplomatic mediation. good offices would be adversely affected.”
At that time, then CCP General Secretary Jiang Zemin publicly stated, “If two people collide on the street in the U.S., they will say Sorry, and it is not good for the U.S. side to say nothing like this now!”
Although Jiang Zemin and the CCP top brass set a strategy to return the favor as long as the U.S. apologized, it did not work out as hoped.
Tang Jiaxuan, a former CCP Foreign Minister, mentioned in his memoir “Strong Rain and Warm Wind” that from April 5 to 10, the Chinese and U.S. ambassadors held 11 rounds of negotiations. In Washington, Yang Jiechi made frequent appointments with U.S. government officials, former dignitaries and key legislators, hoping they would push the Bush administration to apologize to the Chinese side at an early date.
The memoirs acknowledge that “the grim side of the situation was still prominent” and that U.S. public opinion said that the Chinese Communist Party was “effectively holding the U.S. crew as ‘hostages’. Some American people, especially the families of the U.S. crew members, were in intense emotion.”
During this period, Yang Jiechi mentioned Jiang several times in an interview with CNN and repeated Jiang’s demand for an apology from the U.S. side.
The incident ended with the U.S. expressing “two regrets” and the Chinese side releasing the U.S. crew and returning the plane. The CCP did not receive a “formal apology” from the U.S. side. Some time later, U.S.-China relations resumed.
Yang Jiechi’s key career leap by ingratiating himself with Jiang Zemin
On October 25, 2002, then-President George W. Bush and Jiang Zemin met at Bush’s private ranch in Crawford, Texas.
According to an article, during Jiang’s visit to the U.S., Yang Jiechi, then CCP Ambassador to the U.S., relied on his relationship with the Bush family to facilitate Bush’s invitation of Jiang to a private dinner at the Texas ranch.
Yang Jiechi had worked at the Chinese Embassy in the United States for 12 years and had established good relations with the Bush family. Yang Jiechi’s nickname in U.S. diplomatic circles, “Tiger Yang,” was given to him by former U.S. President George Bush Sr.
After the meeting, Yang Jiechi touted Jiang Zemin, saying that the “ranch meeting” was significant and had far-reaching implications.
Some overseas Chinese media people said that Yang Jiechi was a person handpicked by Jiang Zemin. Yang arranged Jiang’s Texas meeting to make Jiang happy, and Jiang told Qian Qichen on the plane, “We want our ambassadors abroad, our comrades who are fighting on the front line, to be Party representatives as well. In this way, Yang Jiechi, who was not a Party representative, became a Party representative, and then became a member of the Central Committee, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Working Committee.”
According to information, Yang Jiechi became an alternate member of the Central Committee at the 16th CPC National Congress in November of that year after Bush and Jiang Zemin met at their ranch in the United States.
Li Zhaoxing, who became the Communist Party’s foreign minister in 2003, was also the result of Jiang’s strong promotion. However, after a series of problems with Hu Jintao’s visit to the United States in 2006, Li was removed from the post of Foreign Minister and replaced by Yang Jiechi. Yang also became a member of the Central Committee.
Analysis of Yang Jiechi’s “Great Power Theory”: The CPC is ready to set the rules by strength
After becoming the foreign minister of the Communist Party, Yang Jiechi made a statement at an ASEAN meeting that still provokes criticism.
The Economist (UK) once told the story that when Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi attended an ASEAN meeting in 2010, he was not shy about hearing complaints from regional countries about the Chinese Communist Party. Yang blurted out then what politicians usually hide: “It is a fact that China [the CCP] is a big country and other countries are small countries.”
Li Linyi said that in 2010, when Hu Jintao was in power, the Communist Party’s “advancement of the state and retreat of the people” had become serious, and the Communist Party’s rule was increasingly dependent on nationalism. Yang Jiechi’s statement is actually a sincere statement that the CCP is ready to set the rules by strength, and it also sets the stage for the CCP to openly challenge the rules set by the United States today.
Recent Comments