President Xi Jinping of China offered a rose-tinted version of reality to the United Nations on Tuesday.
Speaking against a beautiful backdrop painting of the Great Wall, Xi promised that he seeks only to “make Mother Earth a better place for all.” All, presumably, except the entirety of oceanic wildlife. China, after all, is waging a de facto annihilation campaign against the Earth’s oceans. Apparently looking for support from the Democratic Party’s left wing, Xi added that he sought “a green revolution” response to the post-coronavirus economic recovery.
The similarity in language between Xi and the Democratic Party is not coincidental. While Xi’s vast expansion of dirty coal-fired power plants illustrates his less-than-genuine commitment to reducing carbon emissions, the Chinese leader knows that his words are likely a great way to earn favors from Joe Biden. He recalls how President Barack Obama was willing to excuse China’s industrial-scale intellectual property theft, his imperial strategy in the South China Sea, and his human rights abuses, all because Xi pledged to cap his carbon emissions by 2030. Verification wasn’t so important. Xi hopes, with good reason, that Obama’s vice president will carry that template into his own Oval Office.
Xi also bore promises for a future of “peaceful, open, and cooperative development.” China would be a “builder of global peace” and a “defender of international order,” he said. This newspeak extravaganza will be news to all the Pacific rim nations, to Taiwan, and also to India. They recognize that China poses (and intends to pose) an existential threat to the post-World War II international order. Beijing wants to establish a new order in which the democratic rule of law is supplanted by its mercantilism — a new order of the ages, ruled on high by Xi and his successors.
The waltz continued until Xi finally reached his absurd conclusion. “The baton of history has been passed to our generation,” he declared. “And we must make the right choice, a choice worthy of the people’s trust and of our times. Let us join hands to uphold the values of peace, development, equity, justice, democracy, and freedom shared by all of us. And build a new type of international relations. And a community with a shared future for mankind. Together, we can make the world a better place for everyone.”
Xi forgot the caveat — everyone, except anyone who isn’t a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee.
