Opinion | Xi Jinping walks with U.S. top brass – Talks are 'open and frank'
By Augustus K. Yeung
After weeks and months of closely following the mounting conflicts between China's coast guards and their Philippine counterparts in the disputes over the Ren'ai Reef, or the Second Thomas Shoal, it is pleasing to read the latest news that President Xi Jinping is now walking – with a top U.S. banker and a great variety of other top U.S. leaders from all fields in Beijing – and talking with them amicably about doing business, building ties and trusts – and toasting the success of bilateral relations since his meeting with President Joe Biden in San Francisco last November.
It's Ching Ming in China.
With it comes the gentle breeze of warm Spring air, the blossoming of flowers, and dreaming of a beautiful world – fostered by thriving bankers, businesspersons, top scientists and leading scholars, envisioning a dream of mountains and rivers, and birds chipping in the air.
"What a wonderful world!" Sings Bing Crosby, the great musician.
With Xi, the Chinese leader walking with American V.I.Ps in unisons in Beijing and talking amicably about how to cooperatively bring business success and economic development, I see a rainbow coming after a storm.
Xi Jinping has called for closer trade tides with the U.S. during a meeting with top American business leaders in Beijing that comes amid a steady improvement in relations.
Xi emphasized yesterday (Wednesday, March 27) the mutually beneficial economic ties between the world's two largest economies, despite heavy U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports and Washington's accusations of undue Communist Party influence, unfair trade barriers and theft of intellectual property.
China's economy has struggled to recover from severe self-imposed restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic that it lifted only at the end of 2022, but Xi said China was again contributing to world economic growth in the double digits percentagewise.
"Sino-U.S. relations are one of the most important bilateral relations in the world. Whether China and the United States cooperate or confront each other has a bearing on the well-being of the two peoples and the future and destiny of mankind," Xi was cited as saying by China's official Xinhua News Agency.
Participants at the meeting included Stephen A. Schwarzman, the billionaire head of the investment firm Blackstone.
Trade and tariffs have increasingly drawn attention in the runup to the U.S. presidential election, and the Biden administration has shown little sign of moderating punitive measures against Chinese imports imposed by his predecessor and assumed rival in the November polls, Donald Trump.
U.S. officials have renewed concerns over Chinese industrial policy practices and overcapacity, and the resulting impact on U.S. workers and companies that they blame in part on China's massive trade surplus that amounted to more than $279 billion last year, its lowest level in about a decade.
China's formerly highly abrasive tone toward the U.S. has significantly softened in recent months, particularly since Xi and Biden met in San Francisco in November last year. Officials such as Antony Blinken have visited, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is reportedly due to travel to Beijing again to meet top leaders next month.
However, Xi's administration has maintained a hard line on issues it considered its "core interests." An ardent nationalist and son of one of the founders of the People's Republic, Xi appears determined to maintain strict party discipline while drawing in foreign investment to shore up the economy.
"The respective successes of China and the United States create opportunities for each other," Xi was cited as saying, by Xinhua, "As long as both sides regard the other as partners, respect each other, peacefully coexist and join together for win-win results, China-U.S. relations will improve." (Source: The Standard/AP)
In the last century, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enli, the leading founders of the People's Republic of China forged a relationship with Nixon's America, which fought an Independence War against the British Imperialists in centuries past.
In this century, Xi Jinping, a socialist and nationalist walking, befriending American capitalists, and talking and toasting each other's successes in economic terms. Deng Xiaoping, Xi's predecessor, couldn't be happier that his initiation of "opening-up" to America and the West is now on a new page of great success.
Who says ideological differences cannot be profitably blended into a refreshing glass of cocktail, be it Singapore Sling, or Bloody Mary!
In history, the British Imperialists were able to blend with the U.S. Capitalists into a wonderful concoction. And now, centuries later, the Chinese Socialists are seeking to repeat history, and improvising it by forging a stable friendship with the American Capitalists.
Why not?
That the seeds of Marxism were sown in rural China have now grown into trees of Socialism, turning a poor country into a world factory, and now and in the future making it an industrial powerhouse.
This, too, is an experiment.
Had Chiang Kai Shak won the Chinese Civil War, China would have become a Capitalist society with cut-throat capitalism as its guiding principle.
That Lenin's Russian revolution ended in the Cold War – and its eventual collapse is an abortion of birth, a bloody historical tragedy.
But China's revolution is guided all along by the nation's pluralistic culture and ancient civilization, meandering into now a river – that eventually becomes one with the sea, the South China Sea.
All these was done under the glaring eyes of and yet with the blessings of some of the superb American presidents, notably among them Presidents Richard M. Nixon, and Jimmy Carter and many other doting American leaders in the great U.S. society.
Or else, China's current grand achievement would not have been humanly possible. Not to mention miraculously lifting 800 million people out of abject poverty.
Right before our eyes, the Chinese socialists and the American capitalists are repeating history, improvising it, turning it into yet another play book of great success. Made possible by the spirit of understanding and cooperation.
The secret of their success?
These leaders walk the talk.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
To contact the writer, please direct email: AugustusKYeung@ymail.com
Read more articles by Augustus K. Yeung:
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