Biden and Xi’s high-stakes agenda
The relationship between the United States and China is reportedly at a 40-year low. And China is primarily responsible.
China complains that the US is trying to contain its manifest destiny to become the richest and most powerful nation in history. It also accuses the US of imposing punitive tariffs on Chinese goods, and violating China’s Soviet-style sphere of influence in the South China Sea.
On the other hand, the US complains that China is stealing its intellectual property. It also accuses China of exporting fentanyl and methamphetamine precursors, aiding drug cartels in America, and militarizing the South China Sea, thus threatening international shipping and fishing rights.
But trust me, mutual interests are such that both Xi and Biden will spin this summit as even more transformational than Nixon’s first visit “to open China” in 1972.
Biden concedes the narrative before meeting Xi
Still, given those stakes, you might’ve expected Biden to say his goal is to address all complaints in a spirit of competition, not conflict. Instead,
Biden, before leaving Washington to make his way West on Tuesday to attend this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, said his broad goal was to get Washington and Beijing ‘on a normal course corresponding’ once again even as they have sharp differences on no shortage of issues.
(The Associated Press, November 15, 2023)
I don’t doubt that Biden and Xi will have ‘frank and candid’ talks on these agenda items. However, I’m also aware that for China, image, or ‘face,’ is everything.
That explains why Xi’s advance team insisted on choreographing his every step to make him look equal or superior to Biden. So it must have flattered Xi beyond words that Biden kowtowed to allow Xi to arrive in California like a conquering Caesar. Never mind that this required busing in so many Chinese Americans – to wave cheer and wave flags along his route – that Xi might have mistaken California for Beijing.
Worse still, Biden played along with this choreography. He stated that he would consider the summit a success if Xi simply agreed to answer his calls.
But talk is cheap. And, with China, even agreements aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. Former President Obama can attest to this, given how China reneged on a promise not to militarize islands in the China Sea.
Xi is weak, Biden should be projecting strength
The irony is that Xi showed up hat in hand. That’s because his economic, cultural, and foreign policies have turned China into a basket case at home and a pariah abroad.
Domestically, suffice it to know that the miracle of China’s once-booming economy is turning out to be a chimera. This mirrors the rise and fall of FTX, the cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme.
Internationally, suffice it to know that China sacrificed its national welfare to counter or undermine US influence on the world stage. That’s why it is standing with Russia as it wages a genocidal war in Ukraine and siding with Hamas by refusing to condemn its massacre in Israel.
But his authoritarian policies at home and autocratic policies abroad have scared away scores of the international corporations that fuel its economy. Indeed, the flight to safety back in the US and EU rivals the flight Russia triggered with its invasion of Ukraine.
The point is that Xi has come to his senses. He realizes that China needs the US far more than the US needs China. That’s why he’s here. The truly remarkable thing is that Biden does not seem to realize this.
As it happens, I’ve been trying since the first days of his presidency to get Biden to appreciate and act upon this fact. That China needs the US more than the US needs China is the theme of commentaries ranging from “Apple is the Apple of China’s Eye on Its Citizens,” May 24, 2021, to “North Korea Is Meeting Russia to Supply Weapons from China,” September 5, 2023.
China, the smokescreen dragon
Despite its North Korean-style provocations, China does not want war with the US any more than Russia does. Indeed, the headline for a report in the current edition of The Economist helps explain why:
- Xi Jinping worries that China’s troops are not ready to fight
Of course, they’re not ready. But that’s because, like Russia’s troops, China’s troops see no national pride in fighting for the autocratic, mercantile, and even genocidal aims of their oppressive government.
But I submit that China’s dogged refusal to reestablish military-to-military contact is more racially motivated than nationalistic. After all, China made a show of reestablishing contact with the US State Department, Treasury, and other departments long ago. It even rolled out the red carpet for tech US CEOs like Bill Gates of Microsoft, Elon Musk of Tesla/SpaceX, and Tim Cook of Apple.
Conspicuously, though, China continues to snub the defense department. Because, given rising military tensions, you’d think it would’ve been most solicitous to reestablish contact with that department.
Except that, the heads of those other US departments are White. The head of the defense department is Black, namely Lloyd Austin. And that difference alone explains these congenital racists snubbing him.
Finally, apropos of smokescreen, Xi claims China is interested in reestablishing constructive diplomatic relations with the US. But, if that were true, surely China would not have made a show of demanding the return of the Pandas that has been the hallmark or talisman of Chinese diplomacy since the 1950s.