Opinion | Xi owes Biden no favours, China must drive a hard bargain
By Tom Fowdy
Sometime on Friday it has been announced that President of the United States Joe Biden will phone with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, following a flurry of diplomatic activity between the two countries in America's bid to try and get Beijing to oppose Russia's war in Ukraine. The United States has, without due evidence, accused Russia of seeking Chinese assistance to help them in their war effort, which is now into its 4th week. A few days previously, U S National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan had met with Chinese Vice Premier Yang Jiechi in Rome, Italy. The meeting was not unproductive and reportedly lasted seven hours.
Whilst it should be clear that China does not endorse the conflict in Ukraine, with Beijing having publicly reaffirmed its support for peace, dialogue and a respect of the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations, the question needs to be asked again. "Why does China owe the US any favours?" of course, it is undeniable that there is a mutual interest between Washington and Beijing in stopping the war given the instability, unpredictability and risks it poses to the rest of the world. However, the query still stands as to whether America should be given such an act of goodwill by China, cost free, in helping undermine what has been one of its most important strategic relationships.
In the run up to this phone call, the White House marketed the discussion as "managing our competition", this rings to the sound of previous dialogues which otherwise failed to make any kind of substantial progress in US-China relations. The last time Xi and Biden spoke was in their virtual summit in November. Whilst anticipated as a breakthrough in easing tensions between the two countries, the White House proceeded after the meeting to blacklist scores more Chinese companies, initiate a smear campaign in the view to diplomatically boycotting the Winter Olympics and supported an import ban on all products from Xinjiang on the grounds of forced labour.
This has mirrored a constant pattern from the Biden administration of constantly seeking selective engagement with China and making demands on some fronts, whilst simultaneously sticking to the hostile Cold war era laden Trump era foreign policy against Beijing and treating China as a de-facto enemy. It might be described as a form of diplomacy whereby the US believes it can "have its cake and eat it at the same time"- reserving a right to continually antagonize China on military, economic and political fronts but then turn round and facilitate cooperation a la carte, as if Beijing will not demand any concessions for such behaviour.
China of course has always been open to cooperating with the US and has never made any secret of it, but it is abundantly clear the mood in Beijing is deeply unhappy about America's attitude. The US expects Chinese goodwill, on the matter of climate change, trade concessions and now Russia, but simultaneously formerly accuses China of genocide, is supporting pro-independence sentiment in Taiwan, is blacklisting scores of Chinese companies and pursued a global campaign to try and crush Huawei, has attempted to smear and derail projects such as the Belt and Road initiative, has created new hostile alliances and blocs against it such as the Quad and AUKUS, is actively encouraging countries to take sides against it.
Why, on the premise of any of this, does China owe the United States anything? It is precisely these factors which pursued Beijing to agree to a "no limits" strategic partnership with Russia precisely because it feels it is subject to US led containment efforts on multiple fronts, and that is why although China deeply regrets this conflict in Ukraine, that it is nonetheless not falling over itself to adopt America's position. Even as this crisis goes on, it might be noted on Thursday the US stripped the license of another Chinese telecommunications company to operate in the country, on March 5th Nikkei reported that the US was planning to spend up to $24 billion in surrounding China with "Anti-Missile" systems on the first island chain. The list goes on.
You might ask yourself, what happens when this war is over? The medium shifts straight back to the "Indo-Pacific" and the US once again becomes full throttle against China, propaganda campaigns over Xinjiang will resume when a space in the news cycle opens and of course Taiwan based provocations too, who are already using the war opportunistically to advance their own political goals. China would of course be foolish to openly back Russia in this instance, yet so to speak anything Xi gives to Biden must be hard-fought, clear and permanent diplomatic concessions.
China ultimately must be prepared to drive a hard-bargain with the US. Washington must understand that it cannot pursue aggression and hostility against Beijing then simply expect it to acquiesce to their interests, especially when the conclusion is likely to amount to greater containment efforts against China itself. America must in turn provide carrots, not sticks and abandon the Trump legacy policy of attempting to undermine China. If they seek cooperation, they must earn it, diplomacy is about good will and compromise, not stabbing people in the back.
The author is a well-seasoned writer and analyst with a large portfolio related to China topics, especially in the field of politics, international relations and more. He graduated with an Msc. in Chinese Studies from Oxford University in 2018.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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