Xi Jinping Plays Diplomatic Cards, Reasserts Diplomatic Outreach in West Asia
Did the Chinese President Xi Jinping seek prior consent from the US President Joe Biden before meeting the foreign ministers of the Arab countries, when he met his American counter-part on November 15 in San Francisco, his first in-person encounter with him in a year? It is difficult to assess immediately, whether he outwits Biden and his White House team or an outcome of the backdoor diplomacy of the past few months.
The coming weeks may be unfolding the impact of Xi Jinping’s renewed efforts for closer economic cooperation with America; however, the experts of foreign and strategic affairs in New Delhi are unanimous that American foreign policy and diplomacy hinges around the big business. Therefore, the Chinese reassurance to American capitalists will be a determining factor or how much it would be influencing the American thrust in the Asia-Pacific. Meanwhile, Xi Jinping also concedes pre-dominant American role in West Asia. China as indications are, is in no mood to help Iran and its proxies like Hamas or Hezbollah to prolong the conflict in the region.
Just a week before the four-day ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas War, Xi Jinping travels to the US to attend the 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit held in San Francisco. His meeting with Biden, however, has eclipsed the high-profile conference. There is unanimity among strategic thinkers in India that the Chinese leader has cleverly dominated the summit in the world media, if not outsmarted his US counterpart by presenting himself with an olive branch.
In spite of the presence of the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the leaders of Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, the world media has been focused on the US-China summit. The issues related to the climate and other related subjects raised at the APEC were relegated in the media due to this high-profile meeting.
The Dinner Diplomacy : The dinner Xi Jinping have had with the American tycoons in the sidelines of the APEC, is being seen as deliberate effort on his part to renew confidence between the US industry and his government. It, perhaps, has prompted Joe Biden praising “real progress” in the summit meeting as well as at the APEC conference. It is difficult to predict whether the “aggressive postures” being taken by both sides, will be abandoned, but like a temporary truce in the Gaza, US-China may not indulge in verbal accusations at least for a while. The low-key response of the Chinese foreign office regarding Biden’s out of cuff observation describing Xi Jinping an autocrat also indicates the new mood in Beijing.
Meanwhile, Biden has also expressed his happiness that the two countries have agreed to restore military-to-military communications, thus preventing any further tension between them. His anti-Xi Jinping observation is just being taken as a statement addressed to the gallery.
The presence of the executives from US corporate giants such as Apple’s Tim Cook, BlackRock’s Laurence Fink, Broadcom’s Hock Tan, Bridgewater Associates’ Ray Dalio and Pfizer’s Albert Bourla at the dinner tables is also considered a master-stroke in diplomacy. He also met Tesla CEO Elon Musk, assuring him that he supports the company’s ambitious development agenda in China.
However, the presence of the US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and other senior US officials at the dinner has generated political controversy in Washington, especially due to the reported high ticket costs for attending dinner with Xi Jinping in San Francisco. It is being stated that five deep-pocketed American business Moguls reportedly spent $40,000 each to dine at the same table with the Chinese president. It had enabled them to be sitting on one of the eight seats at Xi’s table. For others, the entry fee at the dinner was USD 2000.
The Controversy : Meanwhile, the USA’s main opposition party, Republicans has criticised this mega event. Mike Gallagher, the Republican chairman of the US House of Representatives’ select committee on China, has called the expensive entry fee “unconscionable” that US companies would pay thousands of dollars to join a dinner with a government leader in the United States, which has been committing genocide against Muslim Uyghurs.
Gallagher, who has sent a letter on Monday to the hosts – the US-China Business Council and the National Committee on US-China Relations – demanding a complete list of individuals and companies that, purchased tickets to the dinner.
The White House release on the Biden-Jinping summit expresses satisfaction about the in-depth exchange of views on strategic and overarching issues critical to the direction of China-U.S. relations and on major issues affecting world peace and development. The Chinese foreign office’s detailed note regarding the summit held at the Filoli Estate in San Francisco is full of advice and rhetoric.
It is quite interesting to go through the Chinese document, which says that it is unrealistic for one side to remodel the other, and conflict and confrontation has unbearable consequences for both sides. Major-country competition cannot solve the problems facing China and the United States or the world.
It further stresses that “the world is big enough to accommodate both countries, and one country’s success are faced with two options in the era of global transformations unseen in a century: One is to enhance solidarity and cooperation and join hands to meet global challenges and promote global security and prosperity; and the other is to cling to the zero-sum mentality, provoke rivalry and confrontation, and drive the world toward turmoil and division. The two choices point to two different directions that will decide the future of humanity and Planet Earth. It further stresses that the China-U.S. relationship, which is the most important bilateral relationship in the world, should be perceived and envisioned in this broad context.
Quoting Xi Jinping, it says that China’s development is driven by its inherent logic and dynamics. China is promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through Chinese modernization. It will not take the old path of colonization and plundering, or the wrong path of seeking hegemony with growing strength.
The Five Pillars : The Chinese document mentions about the five pillars that bind China-U.S. relations such as mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation are the lessons learned from 50 years of China-U.S. relations as well as the conflicts between major countries in history. China and the United States should put in a lot of efforts to follow them. First, it stresses for jointly developing a right perception stating that China is consistently committed to having a stable, healthy and sustainable relationship with the United States. At the same time, China has interests that must be safeguarded, principles that must be upheld and red lines that must not be crossed. We hope that the two countries could be partners that respect each other and coexist in peace.
It adds as a second point that the two sides should look for ways to build bridges to help them walk toward each other. Under current circumstances, the common interests between China and the United States have increased, not decreased. It is important to fully and agriculture, as well as emerging areas such as climate change and artificial intelligence trade traditional areas such as the economy, including have broad common interests in a wide range of areas, The remaining three points stress for jointly advancing mutually beneficial cooperation, China and the US should have close cooperation in the fields of science and technology, in foreign policy, economy, finance, commerce, agriculture and other fields, and carry out cooperation in such areas as counternarcotics, judicial and law enforcement affairs. The summit also stressed on jointly promoting people-to-people exchanges.
Gopal Misra has been associated with national and international media. His books on journalism and geo-politics have been well-appreciated. Views are personal.
