The Term of Biden-Xi Summit for the United States, Russia, and the Emerging Cold War: 21 Months after the January 6 Ukraine Attack
The Biden-Xi summit came at a good time for the West and not a moment too soon. China is a major human rights violator, threatening Taiwan and the United States. But avoiding a Cold War or a direct, especially an accidental conflict, is crucial.
The document, required by Congress, comes 21 months into Biden’s term. The broad contours of the strategy have been in evidence over the course of the President’s tenure, including a focus on rebuilding global partnerships and countering China and Russia.
The president delivered his speech at a tense moment, with the United States locked in simultaneous confrontations with China and Russia. Those two nuclear superpowers have tightened their relationship in a new age of great power politics that Biden sees as a fight between democracy and tyranny. Biden framed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “a test for the ages, a test for America, a test of the world” and an example of how America was working for more “freedom, more dignity, and more peace.”
“We will not leave our future vulnerable to the whims of those who do not share our vision for a world that is free, open, prosperous, and secure,” he goes on. The United States of America is better equipped to lead as the world is still dealing with the effects of the swine Flu and economic uncertainty.
The aftermath of the January 6 attack still looms large one year later. Russia accused the US ofhysteria for claiming that Moscow was planning to invade Ukraine. Ukraine was skeptical. The leaders of Russia and China seemed prepared to win the battle. South America to Asia was a place where democracy was on the defensive. There would be a historic test that would play out.
“This decisive decade is critical both for defining the terms of competition, particular with the (People’s Republic of China), and for getting ahead of massive challenges that if we lose the time this decade we will not be able to keep pace with,” he said.
The Chinese readout of the meeting between Biden and Xi states that the Chinese leader mentioned his country as having a Chinese-style democracy.
On Sunday, when he appeared before the congress of the Chinese ruling elite to defend his hard-line reign, he claimed he was the leader who had saved the nation from the ravages of the Pandemic and was now focused on securing China’s rise.
He warned that the nation needed to stand unified behind the party to cope with a world he described as increasingly turbulent. And though he did not mention the United States by name, his distrust of the world’s other great power was an unmistakable backdrop to that exhortation.
There are dangers in the midst of peace. Prepare for storms and high winds, and make sure the house is in good repair before the rain comes.
Public statements from both sides also appeared to indicate a basic foundation that each recognize the critical nature of their rivalry, and both want to ensure that it doesn’t boil over into a war, at least yet. The US Secretary of State is expected to visit China next year. Since Speaker Pelosi visited Taiwan in August, exchanges have been suspended as Beijing launched a massive military operation to cut off Taiwan.
In the long-term, the risk is that competition will lead to over extension abroad, where the rush to counter the other makes it difficult to focus on achieving positive priorities and outcomes. Competition could contribute to domestic divisions in the US and undermine democracy. More than 60% of Chinese-born scientists working in the United States consider leaving the country due to increased xenophobia and anti-Asian violence, along with increased protection of research security.
Washington admits that Beijing is right about Taiwan being part of China but has never recognized Beijing’s claim of sovereignty over the island. The US provides defensive weapons to Taiwan, but it hasn’t explicitly said whether it would intervene in the event of a Chinese attack on the island.
The Xi Jinping Vision and China’s Technological Progress in the Light of Washington’s 2049-Year Renewal
Xi Jinping is expected to break longstanding tradition in the coming days and secure a third term as China’s president, putting the country on a new course that could increase tensions with the U.S.
“This is actually one of the areas — compared to, for example, domestic reform and domestic economic policy — this is an area that Xi Jinping is going to prevail,” Sun said. His vision will be operationalized with even more gusto and precision by these people.
Sun thinks that the “political loyalists” of Xi will be appointed to key positions to help implement his vision.
There are people within the government that do not believe in China’s policies toward the U.S., which will be eliminated by the bureaucracy, Sun predicts.
There isn’t much chance that the major issues can be untangled given that China and the US are in a state of rivalry and confrontation.
A catch-22 situation has developed due to the perception of U.S. actions, such as high level congressional visits from the likes of Nancy Pelosi.
“You get this tit-for-tat retaliation where there’s not a lot of trust … and sort of a back and forth where the U.S. views its actions as responsive to China’s actions, [and] China views its actions as a response to the U.S.’s actions,” Li said.
Meanwhile, the tech industry has become a larger priority for China, especially as the country moves toward the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” by the centennial of the People’s Republic of China in 2049, in which Xi aims to make China a modern socialist country.
With this response from Washington, and China’s desire to increase its self-reliance, it’s likely that “this sort of strategic competition between technological capabilities, between supply chains, that’s going to accelerate,” Li said.
Li said that the situation is essentially an impasse. Progress can be achieved and that will allow both countries to be tested in the years to come.
Sublattice of the Sitong Bridge protest on WeChat and in a China’s social media lexicon: a tiny spark can set the prairie ablaze
In the hallway of an academic building, Jolie, who’d worn a face mask to obscure her identity, waited for the right moment to reach into her bag for the source of her nervousness – several pieces of A4-size paper she had printed out in the small hours of the night.
She quickly pasted one of the students on the notice board, when she made sure that none of the students were watching.
It was written in English and it said that life wasn’t zero- Covid policy, freedom wasn’t martial lawish, dignity wasn’t lies, reform wasn’t cultural revolution, and citizens weren’t slaves.
Chen had tried to share the Sitong Bridge protest on WeChat, China’s super app, but it kept getting censored. So he thought to himself: why don’t I write the slogans in nearby places to let more people know about him?
A different banner on the Sitong Bridge called for a Communist Party meeting to remove Xi just days before a key meeting of the party in which he is set to secure a precedent-breaking third term.
A number of pro-democracy Instagram accounts run by anonymous Chinese nationals have been keeping track of the anti-Xi graffiti and posters. Citizensdailycn, an account with 32,000 followers, said it received around three dozen reports from mainland China, about half of which involved bathrooms. Northern_Square, with 42,000 followers, said it received eight reports of slogans in bathrooms, which users said were from cities including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Wuhan.
Chinese students put up a lot of anti-Xi posters overseas due to the fear of being seen as traitors, which is why they kept their political views to themselves. The Chinese party has increased its control of the Chinese diaspora and harassed those who dare to speak out and threaten their families.
“Maybe (the bridge protester) is the only one with such courage and willingness to sacrifice, but there may be millions of other Chinese people who share his views,” said Matt, a Chinese student at Columbia University in New York.
Some users on social media shared a Chinese proverb that said, “A tiny spark can set the prairie ablaze.” As China went into overdrive to scrub out all discussion about the Sitong Bridge protest, some users on social media shared a Chinese proverb.
Critics of Xi have paid a heavy price. Two years ago, Ren Zhiqiang, a Chinese billionaire who criticized Xi’s handling of China’s initial Covid-19 outbreak and called the top leader a power-hungry “clown,” was jailed for 18 years on corruption charges.
But the risks of speaking out did not deter Raven Wu, a university senior in eastern China. Inspired by the “Bridge Man,” Wu left a message in English in a bathroom stall to share his call for freedom, dignity, reform, and democracy. Winnie the Pooh wore a crown with a “no” sign drawn over it. (Xi has been compared to the chubby cartoon bear by Chinese social media users.)
There was also the fear of being found out by the school – and the consequences, but he managed to push it aside. When he heard about the massacre in Tiananmen Square while in high school, he hoped his writings would lead to a change among those who saw them.
The most desperate thing is that through the Party Congress, it will be possible for Wangfujing to double down on his policies and establish himself as the emperor.
The economy is faltering, and there is ever more strict censorship, according to Chen Qiang, a fresh graduate in southwestern China.
The movement has been dubbed by some as the “Toilet Revolution” – in a jibe against Xi’s campaign to improve the sanitary conditions at public restrooms in China, and a nod to the location of much of the anti-Xi messaging.
Among the posters on the notice boards of Goldsmiths, the University of London, is one with a photo of the Sitong Bridge protest, which showed a plume of dark smoke billowing up from the bridge.
The biggest thing I can do now is put up protest posters, because of my lack of courage, but not because of my ability.
Others expressed a similar sense of guilt. “I feel ashamed. If I were in Beijing now, I would never have the courage to do such a thing,” said Yvonne Li, who graduated from Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands last year.
I was very emotional when I first saw the protest. I found reading Chinese news depressing. I couldn’t see any hope. She said that when she saw this brave man she realized there is still light.
Teng Biao, a human rights lawyer and visiting professor at the University of Chicago, said he is struck by how fast the overseas opposition to Xi has gathered pace and how far it has spread.
When Xi scrapped presidential term limits in 2018, posters featuring the slogan “Not My President” and Xi’s face had surfaced in some universities outside China – but the scale paled in comparison, Teng noted.
In the past, there was only occasional protests by overseas Chinese dissidents. Voices from university campuses were predominantly supporting the Chinese government and leadership,” he said.
“Even liberal democracies are influenced by China’s long arm of repression. The Chinese government has many spies and agents who are working for various organizations involved in United Front-linked activities outside of China.
Beijing has made it their goal to make sure the party line is observed on foreign campuses, so it has extended its control over Chinese student bodies abroad.
“We were scared and kept looking around. I found it absurd at the time and reflected briefly upon it – what we were doing is completely legal here (in the Netherlands), but we were still afraid of being seen by other Chinese students,” said Li, the recent graduate in Rotterdam.
The fear of being betrayed by peers has weighed heavily on Jolie, the student in London, in particular while growing up in China with views that differed from the party line. “I was feeling really lonely,” she said. “The horrible (thing) is that your friends and classmates may report you.”
But as she showed solidarity for the “Bridge Man,” she also found solidarity in others who did the same. A day after the Beijing protest, someone saw a bunch of photos showing protest posters from all over the world.
“I was so moved and also a little bit shocked that (I) have many friends, although I don’t know them, and I felt a very strong emotion,” she said. “I just thought – my friends, how can I contact you, how can I find you, how can we recognize each other?”
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/22/china/china-party-congress-overseas-students-protest-intl-hnk/index.html
Chinese Students and the First US-China Summit Under the New Biden Experiment: What Do We Really Know About the Second Cold War?
It’s easy to make students feel reassured when a smile from a fellow Chinese student or a new protest poster pops up on the same notice board.
After I hung the posters, I went back and looked at if they were still there, and found another poster hanging by someone else.
They said it is their responsibility to do it. If they didn’t do anything, it will be over and I don’t want it to be over so quickly without consequences.
“He let me realize that there are still such people in China, and I want others to know that, too. Not everyone is brainwashed. (We’re) still a nation with ideals and hopes.”
Officials at the first US-China summit under the new Biden administration in March of 2021, exchanged undiplomatic words about a simmering trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
There has been no handshake between a U.S. president and the leader of China for more than three years. Donald Trump was in the White House, the COVID-19 pandemic was months away and relations between Beijing and Washington, while experiencing friction over trade, were on much firmer ground.
Biden and the tensor of the “one China” dispute: a window to reopening the trade relationship between China and the US
Trust is low, the rhetoric is more anggressive, and disputes are still occurring in areas that include trade, technology, security and ideology.
The White House has been downplaying expectations for any agreements or joint statements to come out of the meeting given the lack of common ground between the leaders, instead casting it as a chance for some frank talk about the tensions between the two countries.
The two leaders have talked by phone several times since Biden took office last year, but they have been unable to reverse — or even slow — the downward slide in ties between the world’s two largest economies.
“I don’t think one meeting will save or redefine the relationship,” says Evan Medeiros, a professor at Georgetown University and former White House China advisor. “If they’re lucky and it goes well, maybe they can bend the trajectory a little bit.”
On Wednesday, Biden told a news conference that he wants to “lay out what each of our red lines are” when he sits down with Xi, but experts say that might not be as straightforward as it sounds.
In August, when Nancy Pelosi was planning to visit Taiwan with a congressional delegation, Xi told the US president that people who play with fire will die.
In October, the Communist Party chief once again stated that China’s preference would be for peaceful reunification, but he added that the use of force remains an option.
The US is being accused of “playing with fire” and “holing out” the “one China” policy. Beijing’s anger reached a boiling point in August, when US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi brushed aside its stern warnings and landed in Taipei for a high-profile visit.
Biden will likely seek to reassure Xi that Washington’s long-standing policy regarding Taiwan has not changed, and that the United States does not support Taiwan independence. Analysts say that Xi is likely to remain skeptical because the Republican Party is expected to take control of the House of Representatives following the elections.
A professor at a university thinks the Biden administration will be less flexible in their dealings with China.
The Impact of the U.S. Trade Control Laws on Chinese Semiconductor Systems, and the World’s Most Critical Technology: A Reply to Chinese Prime Minister Kevin McCarthy
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has said he would like to visit Taiwan if he becomes majority leader. Such a move could be disastrous, warns another Chinese expert on international relations.
The Chinese lost their face when Pelosi went. The Chinese expert who was not authorized to speak to the media said that next time, maybe they will take action.
Chris Miller, author of The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology, says “there were a series of really tough export controls imposed on the Soviet Union by the U.S.” There are a lot of similarities.
Last month, the U.S. imposed dramatic export bans on certain advanced semiconductor technology — trade sanctions explicitly designed to hobble critical technology sectors like military modernization and artificial intelligence that are important to China.
In China’s case, enforcing the restrictions could be difficult, though. Small, easy to sneak across theborders, are the advantages of peiches. Other countries that are part of the complex Semiconductor supply chain would need to be on board if total enforcement is to be achieved.
What Do Chinese Prime Ministers Really Want to Say After the 2016 Pelosi-Biden and the U.S. Midterm Elections?
In the wake of the Pelosi visit, Beijing cut three channels of dialogue and suspended cooperation in five other areas, including climate change. China and the United States already have a reduction in contact.
The high-profile meeting between President Biden and the leader of China showed both leaders were open to reestablishing communication and repairing their relationship, which has been compared to a second Cold War.
China doesn’t like to meet and exchange views, they just repeat talking points. Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a professor of political science at Hong Kong Baptist University, said that the way China’s leader interacts with other people is not very creative.
He believes there is a good chance to take a gamble after China’s party congress and the U.S. mid-term elections are over.
But Zhu warns that nobody should expect too much from this summit. A sincere discussion may help deepen understanding between the two leaders, he says — but that’s it.
Medeiros, the former U.S. official, says the current moment is dangerous — and in some ways, similar to the 1950s and early 1960s, when mistrust grew between the U.S. and the Soviet Union and they each “tested and probed” each others’ boundaries.
“After the Cuban Missile Crisis, both sides, because of that incredibly searing experience, internalized the belief that strategic restraint, often institutionalized through things like arms control agreements, was in their mutual interests,” he says.
With democracy suddenly looking like it’s on a better footing and some key autocracies facing serious problems, it was the perfect time for Biden to speak frankly to Xi about areas of dispute between the two powers while trying to protect the relationship from getting into conflict.
On Monday, the two leaders are set to meet each other for another honest exchange in Bali, Indonesia, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit. But the mood in the room is unlikely to be as balmy as the surrounding location.
Biden’s stop at an Asian nations summit comes as advisers see a clear boost from bucking the historical and political trends in the midterm elections. While Biden’s message won’t shift dramatically, the weight behind it is unmistakably more robust after American voters delivered a message that surpassed the hopes of even the most optimistic White House officials.
Biden concentrated on domestic issues in his speech. The address came at a time when the United States is at odds with another nuclear rival, Russia. He hailed the Western effort to counter President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and vowed to Kyiv’s ambassador, who was in the audience: “We are going to stand with you as long as it takes.”
The White House said going into the meeting that President Biden’s focus was not on finding common ground but on ensuring lines of communication remained open in the future.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in Air Force One that the meeting would not result in any major changes in the relationship.
Flying on the Wall: The Impact of China’s Zero-Covid Border Restrictions on the US–China Correspondence
Each side blames the other entirely for the state of the relationship and each believes they are faring better than the other in the situation, said Kennedy, who has recently returned from a weeks-long visit to China – a rare opportunity in recent years due to China’s zero-Covid border restrictions.
The Chinese are willing to pay these costs because they think that the Americans are winning. And they think the other side is very unlikely to make any significant changes,” Kennedy said. Things like that reduce the likelihood of significant adjustments.
But experts say the very fact that the two leaders are having a face-to-face conversation is itself a positive development. Keeping dialogue open is crucial for reducing risks of misunderstanding and miscalculations, especially when suspicions run deep and tensions run high.
I would like to be a fly on the wall and witness that conversation because I don’t believe that the US or China have been very precise about their red lines. Kennedy said that neither side has a clear idea about what positive rewards the other side will get from staying within the red lines.
Now the two leaders are sitting down in the same room, which is a result of WEEKS of intensive discussions between the two sides. But in a sign of the contentiousness of the issue, barbs have already been traded.
“On the issue of Ukraine, China has already made its position clear many times. The talks with the US President won’t change anything. The denuclearization of North Korea has no longer been considered a fundamental element of the Korean Peninsular policy by China.
Nor is his assessment for climate cooperation any rosier. The US and China have some common interests when it comes to climate change but they are not able to agree on how to deal with it.
Experts in the US and China say some progress on greater communication and access between the two countries will already be considered a positive outcome – such as restoring suspended climate and military talks.
ASEAN-US Conference Summary: U.S. Prime Minister Hun Sen Arrives in Phnom Penh for a Trilateral Meeting
Biden arrived in Phnom Penh on Saturday, holding a bilateral meeting with ASEAN chair and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, and attending the ASEAN-US summit.
He got some news back home that could give him a boost through the rest of his trip, as it was projected that his party would retain control of the Senate.
Even as votes are still being counted, the value of that political capital on the international stage will be tested by the scale of the challenges and the effort to translate 21 months of intensive engagement into tangible results.
In order to preview what Biden will be doing, he should ask leaders of Japan and South Korea what they want him to do. What do you want me to go in with?’” Sullivan said that it won’t be the main event of the trilateral, but it will be a topic.
As aggression from North Korea is a top of mind for the leader on Sunday, cooperation is essential. North Korea has conducted missile launches 32 days this year, according to a CNN count of both ballistic and cruise missiles. It conducted only four tests in 2020 and eight in 2021.
“This is my third trip, my third summit – second in-person, and it’s testament to the importance the United States places in our relationship with ASEAN and our commitment to ASEAN’s centrality. The heart of the administration’s strategy is the ASEAN region. As the summit began, Biden said that he was confident that his commitment to work in lockstep with the bloc would be strengthened.
The official said that Biden would lay out the vision for keeping up the pace of enhanced engagement and try to also address concerns of importance to ASEAN in ways that they are looking for.
The official said the ongoing conflict in the country is one of the main topics of discussion this weekend in Cambodia.
World leaders will discuss “efforts to promote respect for human rights, rule of law and good governance, the rules-based international order, and also to address the ongoing crisis in Burma.”
On Friday, Biden traveled to Egypt where he met with Egyptian President El Sisi at the COP 27 climate summit.
Biden’s statements were unusual in that they raised questions about how Beijing will respond, even if his tone spoke to a charged domestic political context as Republicans complain he was too slow to shoot down the balloon.
Biden said after they had talked that he didn’t find the Chinese leader to be more conciliatory. I found him to be straightforward and direct. … We were very blunt with one another about places where we disagreed or where we were uncertain of each other’s position.”
China considers the Taiwan question to be an internal matter. It’s the bedrock of China’s core interests and ” the first red line that must not be crossed in China- U.S. relations,” wrote HUA after the meeting.
“We agree with what we signed on to a long time ago. Taiwan has their own opinions about their independence, and there is a one China policy. We are not moving – we’re not encouraging their being independent. … That’s their decision,” he said.
The Conversation between President Biden and the Chinese Foreign Minister on Air Force One: U.S. Democracy and the Early Results of the G20 Summit
“He’ll have that opportunity to sit, to be totally straightforward and direct and to hear President Xi be totally straightforward and direct in return,” Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters traveling on Air Force One to Bali.
The White House hopes the leaders “come out of that meeting with a better understanding and a way to responsibly manage this relationship and the competition,” Sullivan said.
The two countries need to prevent confrontation and conflict. Both sides would continue discussions on the basis of common understandings already in place and “strive for early agreement,” he added.
Last year, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi presented a list of three core demands to American diplomats in the Chinese port city of Tianjin. Among them: not to interfere with China’s political system, to not hinder China’s development, and to respect Beijing’s claims over territories like Hong Kong or the democratic island of Taiwan.
She said it was important for heads of state to speak directly. There is not enough trust in this relationship. If Xi and Biden send the signal that it’s time to resume communications, hopefully this will trickle down to the lower levels.”
Thirty-seven minutes after wrapping up a late-night gala dinner with Asian leaders – punctuated by plates of wild Mekong lobster and beef saraman – an aide handed President Joe Biden the phone.
On the other end of the line was David Trone, the millionaire Maryland wine retailer who was thousands of miles and a time zone 12 hours away and had just clinched another term in the House.
A person familiar with the call said it was light and brief, but it was indicative of the warmth and enthusiasm Biden had deployed dozens of times in calls to winning candidates in the last week.
The most significant near-term effect on Washington can be seen from Biden’s long-scheduled foreign trip.
Jake Sullivan, US national security adviser, made a point of saying that many leaders had taken note of the results of the election and came up to him to say they were following them closely.
Sullivan spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One while Biden traveled from Cambodia to Indonesia for the G20 summit, and said that the theme of American democracy was one that emerged over the course of the two days.
The First Day of G-20: A Reflection on the Status of the United States and the State of the Art in the Age of Globalization and Inflation
White House officials who were bracing for losses in the days leading up to election day have been more than happy to speak out against pundits and politicians who predicted otherwise.
It’s a reflection – abroad and back in Washington – of a team that officials acknowledge feels constantly underestimated and has long coveted unambiguous success after a relentless and crisis-infused first 21 months in office.
The White House had been waiting for the G-20 to meet with Xi. The two sides spent a great deal of time preparing for the public announcement of the engagement. Regardless of domestic politics, the tenuous state of the relationship necessitated a sit down.
Implicit in a White House mood that has only seemed to grow more buoyant with each new day of called races, the election results prove Biden’s theory of the case is, to some degree, actually working – that an American political landscape that served to rattle allies and foes alike over the last several years was, in fact, stabilizing.
There was a potential split screen when it came to the US president and Xi, as the Community Party Congress came at a time when he was in control of the country.
“Perception matters and so does political standing,” one US official said. The election wasn’t a central focus, but we’re aware of the fact that everyone was watching it.
Far from a liability, however, each of the congratulatory calls back home have underscored the driving wind at the back of a president who entered the meeting with Xi at a moment where US-China relations appear to be inching away from great power competition toward inevitable conflict.
“I know I’m stronger,” Biden said, before noting that given his long-standing relationship with Xi formed during their times as their nations’ vice president that the results weren’t a necessity for the meeting to achieve its goals. The US officials are careful to not overstate the effect in a region where the complexity and challenges far exceed what voters decided in a congressional district or swing state.
Yet Biden is not shy about his view of the important stakes of a moment that he calls aninflection point, centered on the battle between democracy and autocracy.
“What I find is that they want to know: Is the United States stable? Do we know what we’re about? Are we the same democracy we’ve always been?” Biden spoke at his post- election news conference about his conversations with world leaders.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/13/politics/midterms-joe-biden-xi-jinping-meeting/index.html
Validation: From Biden to the G20: Reflecting in the Spectacular Years of the Reconstruction of the United States
Former President Donald Trump, whose election lies had driven the assault on the US Capitol, hadn’t faded away and he remained the most powerful figure inside the Republican Party.
Biden had navigated the narrowest of congressional majorities to enact a sweeping domestic agenda, a chunk of which was done on a bipartisan basis. He had an approval rating of low 40s, weighed down by four decades of high inflation and a population that’s tired of crises.
The possibility that Biden would face the same harsh judgment of his first two years in office as nearly all his recent predecessors wasn’t just likely. It was going to happen.
Instead, as he moved through bilateral meetings and pull-asides, gala dinners and summit gatherings, Biden’s own political vindication served another purpose for his approach on the world stage: Validation.
Biden “feels that it does establish a strong position for him on the international stage and we saw that I think play out in living color today,” Sullivan told reporters after Biden departed the ASEAN-US Summit, as the Xi meeting loomed. I think we will see that when we head into both the G20 and his bilateral engagements in Indonesia.
Nevada Rep. Dina Titus, who faced a tough reelection battle in a redrawn district, had secured another term in office. Biden needed to pass along his congratulations.
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“First of all, it was a big deal that Biden didn’t try to find some way to reduce the $300 billion in Trump-implemented tariffs, which many expected him to do,” he told CNN Business. Biden has made things worse for Beijing on the trade side.
The countries have been locked in a trade dispute since China imposed tariffs on Australia in early 2020 after calling for an inquiry into the origins of the coronaviruses.
Speaking with reporters in Bali, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the meeting was intended to stabilize the relationship and expressed hopes that it would lay the groundwork for bilateral economic engagement.
The stakes are high for both sides and the world. China, with its nearly $18 trillion economy, has in recent years been the main driver of global growth. Covid lockdowns and a real estate crisis have halted its expansion this year.
The meeting will be low on expectations but is crucial to re-engagement, according to CNN Business.
Stabilizing a US-China economic relationship that sits at such a low ebb will be tough given dashed expectations on both sides, according to Dexter Roberts, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Asia Security Initiative, who publishes a newsletter on US-China business and economic relations called Trade War.
Biden’s measures included: October’s limit on the sale of advanced chips and chip-making equipment, a ban on all goods produced in China’s Xinjiang region, blacklisting some Chinese companies, and sanctioning dozens of Chinese and Hong Kong officials over Beijing’s crackdown of the special administrative region.
The US-imposed taxes and subsequent trade war helped to slow China’s economy, but they also cut into American companies’ bottom lines, resulting in job cuts, higher prices, and hits to household budgets, as economic analysis would later show.
Bekink said she did not expect any dramatic shifts in trade flows to emerge as a result of the Biden-Xi meeting. The surplus in China’s favor is still there.
Biden spoke at an event in Syracuse, New York, where he spoke about a $100 billion local investment in the manufacturing of chips.
The pandemic shone a spotlight on the downside of America’s decades-old dependence on foreign chip production. Lockdowns and factory closures in Asia, followed by a global surge in demand for microchips, led to a crippling shortage of the crucial semiconductors needed for American industries ranging from auto manufacturers to cybersecurity to medical equipment.
What the East and West can learn about the US – China relationship at G20 summits in Bali (Indonesia)
The inflation has remained at the highest level in thirty years due to the increased price of new and used cars, caused by production pauses at auto plants.
The summit yielded two important outcomes, one of which is a joint position by Russia and the US against the use of a nuclear weapon in the Balkans and the other is a start of talks on climate between the US and China.
That the world’s two most powerful leaders had not been addressing these issues together in recent months shows how the entire world suffers when Washington and Beijing are as deeply estranged as they’ve been this year.
Leon Panetta, a former White House chief of staff, defense secretary and CIA chief who dealt with US- China relations for decades, expressed cautious optimism after talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit.
But at the summit in Bali, Indonesia, it was clear that while both sides want to avoid a clash now, their goals – China wants to be the preeminent Asian and potentially global power, as does the US – remain fundamentally incompatible.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said neither side should try to remold the other’s system or change it.
At an opportune moment for the Egypt climate summit, Biden told Xi that the US was ready to re-engaged in climate talks. The two leaders agreed to empower key senior officials and deepen efforts on climate change, global macroeconomic stability and health security, the White House said after the talks.
Since Richard Nixon was behind the Cold War freeze to open strategic gaps between Beijing and Russia, Washington’s foreign policy has come full circle.
Things aren’t so different now, though the dynamic between the Kremlin and Beijing has reversed, with China the global power and Russia the junior partner.
Xi-Biden Meeting at the State Department: Prospects for a Cooperation between the World’s Top Economic Powerhouses
The State Department said that Secretary of State Antony Blinken will also visit China in person sometime early next year to follow up on the Xi-Biden meeting.
“The world is big enough for the two countries to develop themselves and prosper together,” tweeted Hua Chunying, a foreign ministry spokesperson who accompanied Xi in his meeting with Biden.
Some analysts say China appeared to be blindsided when Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Beijing has called repeatedly for a peaceful, negotiated end to the war.
Biden came in the G20 with a better position due to the Democrats’ victory in the Senate race, but he is up for reelection in two years.
Analysts said the meeting could lay the groundwork for stronger ties between the world’s top economic powerhouses. The stock markets in mainland China and Hong Kong were supported on Tuesday by the strong performance of technology companies.
Neil Thomas said the goal was to build a floor under declining relations between Beijing and Washington.
Ken Cheung said the meeting was a positive sign that the two sides wanted to find common ground.
Xi and the French Presidency: The Hang Seng Index, China’s First HSI Gain in Three Months and the Prospect of a Successful G20 Summit
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng
(HSI) Index rallied nearly 4% on Tuesday, on track to record a third straight day of gains. The index, boosted by China’s latest policy shift towards a gradual reopening of borders and a sweeping rescue package for the ailing property sector, has soared 14% since last Thursday.
The Chinese technology shares, which were hit by a regulatory crackdown at home and rising tensions abroad, led the markets higher. Alibaba shares shot up by 11% in Hong Kong, followed by Tencent, which was up 10%.
“This was far more progress than we, or indeed most commentators had expected, and dominates what may otherwise turn out to have been a fairly irrelevant G20 summit,” the ING analysts said.
After a meeting with US President Joe Biden on Monday in an effort to keep their rivalry from spilling into open conflict, China’s president is talking to the leaders of Australia, France, the Netherlands and South Korea on Tuesday.
The meeting between the Chinese leader and the French President was squeezed in early on Tuesday, before both leaders showed up at the G20 summit.
The talks, which lasted for 43 minutes according to the French Presidency, saw Xi reiterate his support for a ceasefire and peace talks to end the war in Ukraine.
A readout from the French Presidency said the two leaders “reaffirmed their firm position on preventing the use of nuclear weapons” in the war in Ukraine – a line that was not included in the Chinese readout.
France, like other European countries, has hardened its position on China as a competitor and security concern in recent years.
For the majority of the outbreak, he chose to stay in China and not travel to other parts of the world.
But the most anticipated in-person diplomacy by Xi on Tuesday is perhaps his meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, partly because ties between Beijing and Canberra have frayed significantly over the past years.
Having the meeting alone is a successful outcome, as indicated by the lack of dialogue at the top level for years, according to the announcement by Albanese.
The Australian Problem with Trade: What Do We Really Want to Learn from The World Affairs Columnist? A rebuttal to a question of U.S.
He told reporters that Australia was not interested in not having dialogue with its major trading partners.
“Core Chinese objectives such as its South China Sea, Taiwan and South Pacific policies are fundamentally at odds with Australia’s core interests,” said Australian policy expert John Lee, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank in Washington and former national security adviser to the Australian government.
It may be a diplomatic reset, but not one in substance where both sides begin to approach each other in good faith and prepared to compromise.
Editor’s Note: Frida Ghitis, a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She writes for The Washington Post, World Politics Review and CNN, as well as a weekly opinion column. The views in this commentary are hers alone. View more opinion on CNN.
The Birth of America: The Implications of the Midterm Elections to the United States and to the World’s Best Opponents
Biden pointed out that the results of the midterm elections “sent a very strong message around the world” that the US will remain engaged. There was a bigger message. The most important signal to the world from the midterms is about the health of America’s democracy. The US elections not only went smoothly and peacefully, but they also dealt a harsh blow to many of the most antidemocratic elements in the country.
As Biden and Xi were meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made an emotional, triumphant return to the devastated, now liberated city of Kherson, the one provincial capital that Russian invaders had conquered.
The war also exposed Russia’s military as a paper tiger and led to unspeakable suffering in Ukraine and growing repression at home. It turns out that Putin’s genius was a mirage.
The world’s leading autocrats looked unstoppable even, as Putin andXi, the world’s leading leader, looked ascendant. Some protests against Covid-19 restrictions were violent. The man was anticipating a victory in Ukraine. Xi was hosting the Olympics, basking in attention, and preparing to solidify his control of China.
As Putin tried to get the world to lend him support, the Ukrainians defended their country with surprising tenacity and as Biden rallied allies in a muscular push to support the country.
Putin avoided confrontations with world leaders as he became a pariah and decided not to attend the G20 summit.
The Birth of a Nation: Biden’s Challenges to the Rulers in China and the United States and Implications for the Future of the Free World
To be sure, Biden is not the only leader with a strong hand. Xi has just secured an unprecedented third term as China’s leader, and he can now effectively rule for as long as he wants. He doesn’t have to worry about elections, about a critical press or a vociferous opposition party. He is the ruler of a mighty country for many years to come.
Also crucial in the epochal competition between the two systems is showing that democracy works, defeating efforts of autocratic countries such as China and Russia to discredit it and proving that unprovoked wars of aggression, aimed at suppressing democracy and conquering territory, will not succeed.
It was an open question. At the time, many believed that autocracy would not only win, but would prove to be the better system. How many believe that today?
How many believe Russia, China or Iran offer a better model than an open society with all its foibles and challenges? How many people think the US would be better off with a more authoritarian president?
The public display of autocracy’s fatal flaws has weakened its appeal in the past year due to the contest between democracy and autocracy being far from over. It is not uncommon for leaders to make disastrous mistakes when they are not told they are wrong. The more powerful and ruthless the ruler, the higher the likelihood that no one dares challenge his wisdom, even if he leads his nation toward a cliff.
The brothers wanted the world to think they had a better system than anyone else, so they would quiet any doubts at home. For 16 consecutive years, according to the non-partisan democracy monitor Freedom House, democracy was losing ground. Authoritarian leaders and illiberal forces were on the rise; only about 20% of the world’s population lived in what it calls “Free countries”, the organization’s research showed.
In 2022, while these global strongmen struggled, self-assured “geniuses” like Elon Musk – who more than once appeared to side with autocrats – revealed their own shortcomings, and oppressed populations fed up with decades of tyranny demanded change.
Some of the credit goes to Putin, whose imperialist ploy to conquer neighboring Ukraine struck like a thunderbolt. Freedom was not a vague ideal anymore. No longer was the battle for democracy a metaphor. This was a real war with missiles.
The invasion strengthened NATO, a democratic defense alliance, in a way nothing had in decades. Even Sweden and Finland – countries that had long cherished their neutrality – wanted to join.
China, the brilliance of the last three years: the swine epidemic and the women’s revolt against the regime and its oppression
Also a mirage, it was the brilliance of the Chinese leader. The country saw unprecedented protests demanding an end to the Zero Covid policy and some even call for regime change after nearly three years of Covid-19 lockdowns. All of the restrictions on the swine flu vanished suddenly with seemingly no transition or preparation.
The rules that were in place for the past three years were tossed aside. But China had not used the time to push for increased vaccination or stock up on certain drugs. Various models predict more than one million deaths due to a number of hundred of millions of infections, and reports say that China’s top health officials have estimated hundreds of millions of infections.
In Iran, women rose up against the theocracy, fed up with its repressive rules. The regime – not coincidentally now supplying arms to Russia – responded with more violence, killing hundreds, according to human rights organizations.
No one expected the “Woman, Life, Freedom” activists to continue defying the regime and its brutality. How far will they go? How far will the regime go to snuff them out? How will the rest of the world respond?
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/06/opinions/democracy-china-russia-2023-ghitis/index.html
The case for democracy: Jair Bolsonaro, the president of the United States, who lost in the midterm elections to become the next Donald Trump
Former President Donald Trump launched a new presidential campaign. It was called a lead balloon by the British. He’s becoming an increasingly isolated, rather pathetic figure after many of his top choices failed in the midterm elections and election deniers fared badly. Even his calls for Republicans to unite behind Kevin McCarthy as the new House Speaker seemed to do little to quell the rebellion this week. Democracy was on display during the fight over the speakership. And of course, Trump’s legal troubles seem endless.
Jair Bolsonaro, who was named after Trump, lost his bid for reelection in Brazil. Like Trump, he refused to admit defeat or attend the inauguration of the man who defeated him, President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva. Bolsonaro decided to decamp to Florida.
In the UK, the populist Boris Johnson lost the premiership and after an embarrassing interlude with the hapless Liz Truss, the decidedly non-populist centrist, Rishi Sunak, became prime minister. Back when Johnson led his country out of the European Union, populists everywhere wanted their own versions of the decision. We don’t hear that anymore. Marine Le Pen had to run from her record of being close to Putin due to her losing the election.
Biden called out Beijing on Tuesday before millions of viewers in the US and around the world as diplomatic tensions with China soar and new details emerge of an expansive Chinese balloon surveillance program.
As the situation with China deteriorated, the president spoke. The top Chinese official in Washington, Xu Xueyuan, had earlier lodged “stern representations” in demarches to senior State Department and national security officials, the Chinese embassy said in a statement, complaining that the US had used force to attack the balloon. It was obvious that they were doing damage control and trying to address their intrusion into our airspace.
Moments later, in an ad-libbed addition to his speech, Biden specifically named Xi, as he slammed autocracies and argued for the superiority of democracies.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the China-Russian Connection in the Fossil Era of the Balloon Crisis
Secretary of State Antony Blinken was careful to say he was postponing, not scrapping his travel completely, after putting off his trip to Beijing. There’s still no sign that the situation is going to improve in time for a trip that was meant to address the balloon issue.
Suspicions toward Beijing will not have been helped by revelations about the scope of the Chinese balloon program on Tuesday. US intelligence officials believe the Chinese military has carried out at least two dozen missions over the last few years, all of them in the country’s southern province of Hainan. Roughly half a dozen of those flights have been within US airspace – although not necessarily over US territory, according to one official familiar with the intelligence.
His remarks on Russia immediately proceeded those on China, making it impossible to miss the symbolic synergy between his policy toward both nations as he laid out what might be seen as a Biden doctrine of standing with democracies against autocracies and increasing attempts by nations like Russia and China to apply their power outside their borders.