On Friday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet their Chinese counterparts, Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi, in Anchorage, Alaska. Laying the groundwork, China’s primary Western focus propaganda outlet offers a new editorial titled “Six points China has to let U.S. understand.”
Orchestrated by Yang, who is Xi Jinping’s foreign policy brain, this Global Times offering is designed to mislead Americans as to Beijing’s foreign policy interests. Condemning the Biden administration’s “swashbuckling tricks,” the editorial begins with the assertion that “China has no geopolitical ambitions in the Asia-Pacific region. … China does not believe that it has the ability, or that it is necessary, to pursue development by imperialist expansion.”
That absurd claim sets the tone. And it most certainly is absurd.
After all, when one considers China’s grand effort to seize nearly all of the South China Sea, its policy toward Taiwan, and its pressure campaign against all nations that rim the Pacific Ocean, it’s hard to understand Xi’s strategy as anything other than pure imperialism.
Next up, we’re told that “China has explored a set of domestic governance methods that suit its national conditions. There are some ideological differences between China and the West …” The editorial’s third point adds to this, observing that Beijing wants “to help the U.S. understand China’s political logic and the moral basis for all its governance measures.”
It’s pretty clear what’s going on here. China is attempting to use moral relativism to shield its grotesque human rights record from criticism. Yang knows that if Americans come to view China’s policy toward the Uyghurs, or Hongkongers (or, for that matter, any Chinese citizens) as reflections simply of a different moral code, China will have space to advance its interests in other areas. Xi’s regime has been genuinely shocked by the manner in which its human rights policies are now disrupting its trade relations. China wants to end that dynamic without ending any of the offending policies. It has likely assessed that the easiest way to do so is by applying a narrative of moral relativism on steroids.
“Fourth, it is true that China has territorial disputes with some of its neighbors, but China’s consistent position on these disputes is to resolve them peacefully.” The only thing worth saying here is that this statement will be news to nonChinese fishing crews in the South China Sea. China likes to attack those crews for their outrageous decision to fish in international waters.
Fifth claim: China has never “considered replacing US hegemony with ‘Chinese hegemony.’ It is Beijing’s sincere hope that the 21st century will be a century of win-win results for China, the U.S. and other countries.” This is hilarious. Xi’s foreign policy is designed to leverage economic power in furtherance of political fealty to Beijing. China is quite explicit about this strategy, emphasizing that if governments want to benefit from Beijing’s investment, said investment won’t come free.
Finally, the Global Times says that “If the U.S. is willing to coexist and cooperate with China in peace, China welcomes that and will work hard to make that relationship work. If the U.S. is determined to engage in confrontation, China will fight to the end.”
Put another way: Kneel to our rules or face our force. Blinken and Sullivan might have their work cut out for them.
