The Guardian-China praises warm Xi-Biden meeting in change of rhetoric
November 16, 2023 4 min 732 words
中国外交部对习近平和乔·拜登在加利福尼亚举行的“热情”会晤表示赞赏，这标志着在数月的谈判后，中美关系的紧张局势有所缓解。外交部的声明称美中关系是“世界上最重要的双边关系”，“一个稳定而不断发展的中国对美国和全世界都是有益的”。最近几个月，北京的官方言论从对美国更为激进的立场转变为更为和解的语调。人民日报最近的社论将美国称为“老朋友”。 华春莹，中国外交部副部长兼发言人，在个人和政治层面强调了中美之间的温暖。她在社交媒体上发布了两位领导人在一起微笑的照片，拜登似乎向习展示了一张手机上的中国主席年轻时站在金门大桥前的照片。华还发布了美国飞虎队的照片，这是在二战期间帮助中国抵御日本的美国飞行员中队，表示美中两国人民将“永远不会忘记”对方。然而，中国关于习-拜登会晤的声明指出“美国不应密谋打压和遏制中国”，分析人士称这是“遏制”的冷战言论。尽管有暖言，中美之间仍存在一些紧张点，其中之一是中国经济困境，美国加强了对先进技术出口的限制。 在周三的会晤上，习表示这些措施“严重损害了中国的合法利益”。在两个超级大国之间最大的紧张点之一——台湾问题上，进展甚微。中国专家以及一些美国专家担心，拜登政府对这个由中国宣称为其领土的自治岛屿的修辞支持有偏离“一个中国”原则的趋势。习表示美国应“停止向台湾出售武器，支持中国的和平统一”，并称“台湾问题仍是双边关系中最重要、最敏感的问题”。拜登表示美国将继续向台湾提供武器作为威慑手段。尽管在军事对话和芬太尼协议上取得了一些进展，但两国之间的紧张仍然存在。这次会晤可能是缓解紧张关系的第一步，但真正的挑战仍在后头。
China has praised the “warm” meeting between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden in California, in a marked shift of rhetoric after months of negotiations aimed at restabilising what has been a testy relationship.
A readout from China’s foreign ministry said the US-China relationship was “the most important bilateral relationship in the world” and that “a stable and growing China is good for the United States and the whole world”.
Official rhetoric from Beijing has moved in recent months from a more aggressive stance on the US to a more conciliatory tone. A recent editorial in People’s Daily, the official Communist party newspaper, called the US an “old friend”.
Hua Chunying, China’s assistant minister for foreign affairs and a foreign ministry spokesperson, emphasised the warmth between the US and China at a personal and political level.
She posted a photo on social media of the two leaders smiling together, with Biden apparently showing Xi a photo on his phone of the Chinese president as a young man in front of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Hua also posted an image of the Flying Tigers, a squadron of US fighter pilots who helped to defend China against Japan in the second world war, saying the American and Chinese people would “never forget” each other. In recent months, Beijing has revived the story of the Flying Tigers as an example of positive US-China cooperation.
Still, China’s readout of the Xi-Biden meeting noted that “the United States should not scheme to suppress and contain China”, language that analysts said echoed cold war rhetoric of “containment”. Beijing has previously accused Washington of perpetuating a “new cold war” but Thursday’s readout said Biden had reaffirmed that this was not his aim.
Speaking at a dinner on Wednesday hosted by the US-China Business Council and the National Committee on US-China Relations, Xi praised the Flying Tigers and said he kept in touch with some of them via letters.
Xi said the biggest question for the US and China was “are we adversaries or partners?”.
He said: “China never bets against the United States, and never interferes in its internal affairs. China has no intention to challenge the United States or to unseat it. Instead, we will be glad to see a confident, open, ever-growing and prosperous United States. Likewise, the United States should not bet against China, or interfere in China’s internal affairs. It should instead welcome a peaceful, stable and prosperous China.”
Xi received a standing ovation after his speech at the dinner. Attenders reportedly included Apple’s Tim Cook and Tesla’s Elon Musk. Tickets for the event started at $2,000 (£1,612) per person. Analysts said Xi’s decision to address a business-focused audience reflected his desire to emphasise that China was open to foreign companies.
Behind the warm words exchanged between Xi and Biden, there are still several points of tension. One of them is the fact that with China’s economy struggling, the US has tightened restrictions on the export of advanced technology. Rules affecting the export of chipmaking technology, designed to limit China’s ability to develop the most advanced semiconductors, come into effect on Thursday.
At the meeting on Wednesday, Xi said such measures “seriously hurt China’s legitimate interests”.
There was little progress on the biggest point of tension between the two superpowers: Taiwan. Experts in China – and some in the US – are worried that the Biden administration’s rhetorical support for the self-governing island, which China claims as part of its territory, is deviating from the “one China” principle, which the US officially backs.
Xi said the US should “stop arming Taiwan and support China’s peaceful reunification”, adding that “the Taiwan question remains the most important and most sensitive issue” in the bilateral relationship. Biden said the US would continue to arm Taiwan as a deterrent.
Chinese concerns about US support for Taiwan reached a zenith last year when the outgoing speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, visited the island. That resulted in an angry backlash from Beijing and the suspension of several channels of communication, including on drugs control and the military.
Those tensions showed some signs of easing on Wednesday as the two leaders agreed to restore military dialogues and reached an agreement on fentanyl. A few days earlier, the US and China put out a new joint climate statement.