The consensus about this week’s meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping is that nothing much was achieved, which is largely true. In fact, no one was expecting any breakthrough, but it was definitely problematic that Joe Biden could not read the riot act to Xi Jinping for the latter’s many misadventures, including a most aggressive expansionist policy. At least there is no such mention in the readouts issued by the two countries post the meeting, for example on the question of Taiwan. What we have instead is assertion by Xi Jinping that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China and whoever tries to change that or tries “to use Taiwan to contain China” “will get burnt”; and that while the “sons and daughters of the Chinese nation” wanted a peaceful reunification, if China’s hands were forced or its red line was crossed, China “will be compelled to take resolute measures”—all of which amounts to an explicit threat. Biden’s language was much more measured where he reiterated that the “United States remains committed to the ‘one China’ policy…and that the United States strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”. In other words, notwithstanding Biden’s conciliatory tone, Xi Jinping’s belligerence knew no bounds, in spite of all his declarations about the need to have “mutual respect”, “peaceful coexistence” and “win-win cooperation”.
Lest we forget, it was Biden who wanted to have the meeting with Xi Jinping, and started off with a good-natured wave at Xi along with a broad smile. But there was no reciprocal bonhomie, with Xi taking a few seconds to absorb the gesture before waving back, and forcing himself to smile. The body languages of the respective leaders would have set the tone and tenor of the meeting, which continued for nearly four hours. From Xi Jinping’s “vantage point” it was the US that was responsible for the frostiness that had crept into US-China relations and so it was President Biden’s responsibility to “demonstrate political leadership and steer America’s China policy back on the track of reason and pragmatism”. What he actually meant was, after Donald Trump made life difficult for him, it was time for Biden to be a bystander, while he and his wolf warriors went on a rampage dominating the world; that it was time for Biden to behave the way Barack Obama did, going to the extent of not moving a finger while China grabbed the Scarborough Shoal in 2012, a territory claimed by Philippines.
The obvious question now uppermost on everyone’s mind is, how far will Biden go down the Obama path?
The way China has interpreted the meeting finds a reflection in a tweet by the Global Times: “@JoeBiden made three promises, not seeking to change China’s system, not seeking an alliance to oppose China & no intention to have clash with China, while President Xi expressed hope for US to fulfill its remarks on not having a new cold war. #XiBidenVirtualMeeting.” Hence, the onus of peace is with the US and not with China. This is typical Chinese tactics, where it is either the victim of aggression or always in the clear, and it’s always the other side that is to be blamed. Hence, it is India’s fault that Galwan took place and that the two militaries are locked in an eyeball to eyeball confrontation in the icy Himalayas. It is never China’s fault.
It takes some gall to issue a readout where Xi claimed, “Aggression or hegemony is not in the blood of the Chinese nation. Since the founding of the People’s Republic, China has never started a single war or conflict, and has never taken one inch of land from other countries.” The sheer mendacity of the statement would leave anyone reeling. This amounts to concocting history. How is it possible to have a civilized relationship with such a country?
China is clear, it does not want conflict, but any attempts to contain it may end in conflict, as expressed by Global Times in a very telling tweet about an article it has published: “If the US continues to contain China as it did in the past following #XiBidenVirtualMeeting, the world will not be convinced that the guardrails advocated by Biden can ensure that competition does not veer into conflict…”
To cut a long story short, smiling and waving at Xi Jinping has not brought the world any closer to peace. It has just exposed the nature of the beast that Communist China is, once again. President Biden and the civilized world should be very worried.