Unless two countries have a falling out and break diplomatic ties, diplomats and foreign service personnel should not publicly criticize the head of state of the country to which they are posted.
However, US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns has broken the mold, taking shots at Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and pointing out why the bilateral cooperative relationship has eroded, saying that Xi is the problem.
Burns made it clear that the US and China had relatively few problems while power was in the hands of former Chinese Communist Party leaders Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平), Jiang Zemin (江澤民) and Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), but now, opportunities for US-China cooperation no longer exist. With Xi in charge of China’s government, his country has undergone big changes. It has become menacing and imperious, and views smaller nations with contempt, intent on projecting China’s power throughout Asia and the Pacific, even to the point of world hegemony, all while using repression to rule domestically.
Burns gave a speech at the Asia Society in Washington, in which he blamed Xi’s bloated personality cult and misjudgement of the power of the US, Japan, Germany, the EU and NATO, on his belief that “the East is rising and the West is declining.”
China is ignoring the US’ request to stop providing Russia with armaments and parts in its war against Ukraine. This is a serious issue in bilateral relations.
Surprisingly, Burns is not the first US Department of State official to publicly speak out against Xi. The consensus of the two major US political parties is that issues in US-China relations have their roots in Xi’s China.
After US President Joe Biden met with Xi at the San Francisco Summit last year, Biden went so far as to publicly call Xi a “dictator.”
Biden used to have misplaced faith in personal exchanges with Xi, believing that he was an “old friend,” but his criticism is no longer out of the ordinary.
At the beginning of this month in an interview with Time magazine, Biden said that no national leader would be willing to trade places with Xi.
“You’ve got an economy that’s on the brink there. The idea that their economy is booming? Give me a break,” he said.
Burns’ reference to China under Deng, Jiang and Hu was his way of blaming Xi for China’s internal and external chaos, including the halt on opening and reform policies; his U-turns on promises and desire for dictatorial power; attempting to use military force to change the “status quo” in the South China and East China seas, and the Taiwan Strait; and not convincing Russia to stop its invasion and war in Ukraine, but instead throwing it a lifeline.
The US is not allowing Xi to take the chance to stoke nationalism by taking aim at his obstinacy and recalcitrance.
It wants Chinese to realize that “their Xi Jinping” is the instigator and it is he who has mired China in its economic predicament.
After more than half a century, Americans have come to consider China to be Asia’s problem, while China’s problem is Xi.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) brays that the government is “provoking” China and that he is speaking up in the name of peace.
Ma and his ilk have made the absurd demand that Taiwanese should “believe” Xi’s words.
This small group of miscreants is Taiwan’s problem.
James Wang is a media commentator.
Translated by Tim Smith
In their recent op-ed “Trump Should Rein In Taiwan” in Foreign Policy magazine, Christopher Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim argued that the US should pressure President William Lai (賴清德) to “tone it down” to de-escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait — as if Taiwan’s words are more of a threat to peace than Beijing’s actions. It is an old argument dressed up in new concern: that Washington must rein in Taipei to avoid war. However, this narrative gets it backward. Taiwan is not the problem; China is. Calls for a so-called “grand bargain” with Beijing — where the US pressures Taiwan into concessions
The term “assassin’s mace” originates from Chinese folklore, describing a concealed weapon used by a weaker hero to defeat a stronger adversary with an unexpected strike. In more general military parlance, the concept refers to an asymmetric capability that targets a critical vulnerability of an adversary. China has found its modern equivalent of the assassin’s mace with its high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) weapons, which are nuclear warheads detonated at a high altitude, emitting intense electromagnetic radiation capable of disabling and destroying electronics. An assassin’s mace weapon possesses two essential characteristics: strategic surprise and the ability to neutralize a core dependency.
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
During the “426 rally” organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party under the slogan “fight green communism, resist dictatorship,” leaders from the two opposition parties framed it as a battle against an allegedly authoritarian administration led by President William Lai (賴清德). While criticism of the government can be a healthy expression of a vibrant, pluralistic society, and protests are quite common in Taiwan, the discourse of the 426 rally nonetheless betrayed troubling signs of collective amnesia. Specifically, the KMT, which imposed 38 years of martial law in Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, has never fully faced its
RSS