Aside from a few basic biographical details, very little is known about the cherished daughter of Chinese President Xi Jinping and his second wife, famous folk singer Peng Liyuan….reports Asian Lite News
US Congress Rep Vicky Hartzler revealed that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s only daughter Xi Mingze is living in America. Hartzler revealed this while she was introducing the “Protecting Higher Education from the Chinese Communist Party Act.”
According to a Chinese current affairs commentator living in the US stated on his YouTube channel on Sunday that Hartzler divulged the fact that the only child of the world’s second most powerful leader lives in the US.
Aside from a few basic biographical details, very little is known about the cherished daughter of Chinese President Xi Jinping and his second wife, famous folk singer Peng Liyuan.
The US Senator bill would ban “individuals serving in the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party and their family members from receiving student or research visas.”
Meanwhile, the commentator pointed out that he said in 2019 that Xi’s daughter has returned to the US after living in China for 5 years.
Xi Mingze, born on June 27, 1992, studied French at her high school, Hangzhou Foreign Languages School.
She travelled to the US in 2010 to study at Harvard University in Massachusetts under a pseudonym, but it wasn’t until 2012 that many people had even heard of her.
The commentator believes that she is still living in the same Cambridge area and is a research student there now.
Earlier, a Chinese man, Niu Tengyu, a website technician, was charged with leaking the personal information of President Xi Jinping’s daughter and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. (ANI)
Chinese president, Xi Jinping, had consolidated and tightened his control over the Chinese society to a degree unseen for decades, Yang noted….reports Asian Lite news
Even as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has granted the opportunity to host the prestigious world event to China, the country does not seem to be interested in the rights or welfare of the Chinese people at all.
Activists advancing civil rights for the citizens of China are being detained by the Chinese authorities for subverting state power, putting them in the crosshairs of the Chinese government, Jianli Yang has stated in a column in National Review, a US based news magazine.
Chinese president, Xi Jinping, had consolidated and tightened his control over the Chinese society to a degree unseen for decades, Yang noted.
He lamented that Human Rights lawyers and two important leaders of the Chinese Citizens Movement, Ding Jiaxi and Xu Zhiyong, have been detained at a time when they should be celebrating the Chinese New Year with their friends and family members.
“The movement was founded by these leaders in 2011. These people defend and exercise their rights as citizens under the Chinese constitution,” Yang wrote in the column.
He stressed that these two Chinese leaders had demanded that government officials’ financial holdings be disclosed and all children, particularly those of migrant workers, should be given equal access to public education.
“Since these activists had raised their voices and committed themselves for the rights of their fellow citizens, they were detained by the Chinese authorities. Even after the two leaders were released, they continued to promote the development of civil society, reaching out to citizens around the country who shared their aspirations,” Yang added.
On December 7 and 8, 2019, they had attended a two-day private gathering with around 20 lawyers and friends in Xiamen city in Fujian Province, reported the Magazine.
The Chinese police detained Ding Jiaxi on December 26, 2019, and Xu Zhiyong on February 15, 2020, and held them under a police measure called “residential surveillance at a designated location” (RSDL).
Nigeria govt: 3,000 inmates yet to be recaptured following recent jailbreaks
China Human Rights Defenders, RSLD, has become a widely and frequently used detention tool in China. The RSDL is a form of detention that is employed by Chinese authorities on the individuals “endangering state security”.
Human rights activists, now and then, have flagged that this kind of detention is in violation of human rights and have urged China to stop using it.
In RSDL detention, the two detainees were subjected to torture and other means of torture. Prolonged sleep deprivation, harassment through loud noises, interrogation while strapped tightly to an iron “tiger chair,” food and water restrictions and deprivation of showers and exposure to sunlight were some of the torturous ways used by the authorities, Yang stated in the column. (ANI)
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan held a series of meetings with leaders of China’s leading state-owned and private companies in Beijing. (Photo: Twitter@PakPMO)
However, both sides have so far been unable to make progress on the much-delayed multibillion-dollar project of Mainline-1 (ML-1) despite making efforts, as the financing agreement has not yet been firmed up yet, reports Asian Lite News
Pakistan and China are all set to sign different agreements worth $10-15 billion during the ongoing visit of Pak Prime Minister Imran Khan to China, including rollover of $4 billion deposits, fresh loan of $4 billion, and other projects, The News reported.
However, both sides have so far been unable to make progress on the much-delayed multibillion-dollar project of Mainline-1 (ML-1) despite making efforts, as the financing agreement has not yet been firmed up yet.
Pakistan’s federal cabinet has also granted approval for signing of much-awaited industrial cooperation between the two countries under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Pakistan Prime Minister
Imran Khan
attending the opening ceremony of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at Bird’s Nest, Beijing. (Photo: Twitter@PakPMO)
“Pakistani authorities are expecting that the ongoing visit of PM Imran Khan will pave the way for boosting bilateral relations and minimum size of cooperation will be over $10 billion,” official sources confirmed to The News on Friday.
While the parties are proactively promoting, facilitating and executing the long-term industrial development plan, the CPEC is a framework of regional connectivity, infrastructure development, and industrial cooperation which will not only benefit the parties but also have a positive impact in the region.
China has advantages and expertise in technology, financing, and industrial capacity, while Pakistan enjoys favourable conditions in natural resources, adequate labour manpower, quality infrastructure, access to the international markets and optimal policies for industrial development, the report said.
Chinese-President Xi Jinping (Source twitter@ChinaAmbUN)
Xi Jinping is fashioning his expansionism through the Japanese method of kaizen, writes Prof. Madhav Nalapat
As much as what is being sought to be accomplished by him and the rest of the Communist Party of China (CCP), Xi Jinping is relying on the long-time propensity of the leaders of major democracies to make wrong strategic choices, and formulate erroneous policies. He expects such self-goals to push the PRC not just to the top of the table in GDP rankings, but to establish first primacy over the global geopolitical landscape. Xi Jinping Thought is a further development of Mao Zedong Thought, with the latter getting modified and adapted to meet the conditions believed within the CCP to be prevalent in the 21st century.
The core remains Han exceptionalism, presented as Chinese exceptionalism. It is no accident that the most sensitive slots within the PRC state security establishment in particular are filled with those who are from the Han majority of the population of the country. The others may be given impressive titles, in an effort at obscuring the reality of Han identity being at the core of the praxis of CCP doctrine, but their influence over policy and control over outcomes is scant.
There are numerous external commentators who speak confidently of the “resistance” and “inner party crisis” that is brewing within the CCP, and the possibility of such dissidents succeeding in displacing Xi, much the way the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) deposed Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev in 1964, two years after the Cuban missile crisis, in which CPSU General Secretary Khrushchev failed to call President Kennedy’s bluff of launching an all-out war (including with nuclear weapons), were the USSR to station ballistic missiles in Cuba.
Aware of the pitfalls that may ensue to his own position at the apex of power in China should a military adventure fail, Xi is fashioning his expansionism through the Japanese method of kaizen, seeking to constantly improve the position of the PRC in a manner that would avoid an all-out conflict, especially with the US. Fortunately for him, the attention of the US and much of NATO seems fixated on Russia, just as was the situation during Cold War 1.0.
A conflict involving NATO and Russia in Europe would remove much of the pressure that has been building up against Beijing’s activities in the Indo-Pacific for the next decade, if not more, in an even greater way than the 9/11 attacks of 2001 made President George W. Bush veer away from focusing on the rising challenge posed by China to the Middle East and Afghanistan.
The CCP leadership made full use of that opportunity, and by the time Xi Jinping emerged as the ruler of the PRC in 2012, had leveraged policies sufficiently to make it the second superpower, just behind the US in influence and capabilities. By 2015, the term “CCP leadership” covered not the Standing Committee and leading elements in the CCP, but solely the Office of the General Secretary of the CCP. Today, through his security services and the harnessing of technology, Xi has accumulated more personal power than was the case even with Mao Zedong during his years in office as the Great Helmsman of the CCP.
Both Xi’s predecessors, Jiang Zeming and Hu Jintao, have clearly retreated into the shadows, perhaps awaiting better times. Within the Han population, Xi Jinping has become genuinely popular for his expansive promise of a future where they will run the globe much as those of European descent did in previous centuries. The General Secretary’s public cashiering and humiliating of princelings and billionaires has further boosted his appeal as a “man of the people”.
Those who believed from the days of the 2011 Arab Spring onwards that control over the streets would succeed in effecting if not regime change, then regime modification, at least in Hong Kong have been disappointed. Having performed its role of gateway to the world during the period of economic modernisation from the 1980s onwards, Hong Kong has lost much of its essentiality to the PRC, as evidenced by the manner in which the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) has in effect become just another Chinese province.
More people in Shanghai speak English than in Hong Kong these days, and Beijing controls the HKSAR as completely as it does other parts of the PRC. Mass manifestations of public anger may yet erupt in the future, should there be a catastrophic decline in economic output or defeat in a kinetic conflict, but as yet, the conditions for that seem distant. Rather, there are other faultlines, which presently lurk under the radar, almost invisible, that may in future threaten the hold of CCP General Secretary Xi over the country. These relate firstly to matters of faith. Not just the experience of Russia and parts of East Europe but any catechism would make it clear that Christianity as a theology is antithetical to Communism, even that of the Mao-Xi variety.
However, unlike his predecessors Jiang and even more Hu Jintao, Xi appears to be opposed to any form of organised religion, including those that are diluted through the sieve of party control. Unlike in the past, when Buddhism was sought to be showcased as more Chinese than Indian, these days even that faith is facing leaner times. This is creating resentment within the minds of believers, although this mood is still dormant at present. Similarly, belief in democracy as an attractive way of life is percolating through the psyche of the Han people, fuelled by the success of Taiwan in both retaining democracy as well as a healthy economy, Taiwan’s success has come despite vigorous and often overt CCP efforts at undermining that country.
More than anything happening elsewhere, the Taiwan example has broadened a longing for democracy that is inconsistent with Xi Jinping Thought. The third faultline facing Xi’s project is factionalism. The severity of the consequences faced by those regarded as unreliable where adherence to the control of Xi over the party and the country is concerned has generated not just fear, but in many a sullen albeit silent mood that is waiting for conditions that would facilitate a largescale eruption of discontent. Much the way those opposed to hyper-authoritarian governments in the past became willing to act as the agents of external forces, there may be a flow of what at the moment is just a trickle of defections from the PRC or within that country, from General Secretary’s project of a China Dream with Xi Characteristics. For Xi, it is All or Nothing, and it will not be long before the shape of the eventual outcome emerges.
Chinese President and General Secretary of Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping (Xinhua_Ju Peng_IANS)
Xi Jinping’s overriding call for ‘Socialism with Chinese characteristics’ is driven by the strategy of national consolidation that took cognisance of the need to accommodate multiplicity of religions prevalent in China without compromising with Socialism, supremacy of CPC and civilisational heritage of the nation. …writes DC Pathak
In his New Year message to the nation, Chinese President Xi Jinping carried forward the process of what has aptly been called ‘Sinicization of Marxism’. He referred to the ‘great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation’ in progress and particularly appreciated the youth who have pledged to the Party ‘to make their country strong’ and ‘save their pure true love for the motherland’.
He talked of the historical convergence of the two centenary goals in the year gone by — realisation of a ‘moderately progressive society in all respects after eliminating extreme poverty’ on one hand, and launch of the mission of ‘building a modern Socialist country for great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation’ on the other — crediting the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) for both.
Stating that this progress is not going to be easy, Xi struck a note on cultural moorings of Chinese nationalism by referring to Yellow River and the Yangtze River as the two ‘mother rivers of the Chinese nation’ and reaching out to ‘our compatriots overseas’ to compliment them for working so hard.
At the same time, religious affairs in China have been put under stricter watch since 2015 when Sinicization was introduced. Over the years, religious beliefs have attracted Party’s control – they have been pushed towards ‘alignment with Chinese culture’ and rejection of foreign influence.
Importantly, it is in the backdrop of accusations of repression in China on Muslims, Christians and Tibetan Buddhists that Xi Jinping addressed a national conference on ‘work related to religious affairs’ held at Beijing in early December and highlighted the need for religions ‘to adapt to Socialist society in the Chinese context’.
He made a significant observation that ‘while freedom of belief was to be fully implemented’, religion should act as the bridge connecting ‘Party and the Government’ with the people and enjoined upon religious personages and believers to enhance the recognition of ‘motherland, Chinese nation, Chinese culture, CPC and Socialism with Chinese characteristics’.
He also underlined the desirability of religious activities being conducted within the scope of stipulations of law – not offending public order or public health. Classical Marxism – it may be mentioned here – did not reject right to worship but considered religion as an impediment to social change. The thought that ‘religion is the opium of the people’ emanated from an interpretation by Karl Marx of ‘faith in an invented God’ as a sentiment of ‘oppressed masses’ that helped them deal with the limitations they had in making demands for social change, by making ‘a virtue out of suffering’.
Marxism saw religion as a tool of social control tracing it to the phenomenon of bourgeois and the Church supporting each other and for that reason called for ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ that eliminated religion from governance.
Communism saw no need for religion in a dispensation that provided a ‘fair order’. Xi Jinping, however, can be said to have tamed Communism and Marxism to cater to the ‘civilisational roots’ of China and put ‘cultural nationalism’ on top as the guiding spirit for progress.
His overriding call for ‘Socialism with Chinese characteristics’ is driven by the strategy of national consolidation that took cognisance of the need to accommodate multiplicity of religions – Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestants and Catholics – prevalent in China without compromising with Socialism, supremacy of CPC and civilisational heritage of the nation.
Xi Jinping in his New Year address made a reference to Mao Zedong’s ‘Long March’ while recalling how China had been progressing as a nation ever since, and seemed to claim an even bigger mantle for him by suggesting that China had, in his time, made remarkable advance in all spheres, from technology to space, for becoming ‘a modern Socialist country in all respects’.
Xi Jinping launched the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013 for promoting economic development and inter- regional connectivity to spread China’s sphere of influence – this is sought to be used as a major strategy for China’s march on the economic route to becoming a Super Power.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) provides the foundation for Sino-Pak strategic alliance based on a give-and-take between these two countries executed at the cost of India. It is a typical illustration of the Chinese policy of combining strategic pursuit with economic advancement.
At present, China and Pakistan – the two adversaries of India – are working together, posing a prime threat to national security on the borders, in Afghanistan and on the international front, requiring a new strategy of countermeasures that must include preparations for handling a two-front war.
India is putting in motion a well-considered response to this scenario – ensuring adequate military build up on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), intensifying counter-terror measures in J&K, and fully supporting Quad to check Chinese aggressiveness in Indo-Pacific to help the security of Indian Ocean too.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping inside a house boat, in Wuhan. (Photo IANS_PIB)
A larger emerging role of India is to lead along with the US the endeavour of the democratic world to deal with the security threat arising for it from the axis of Marxist China and a fundamentalist Pakistan that harbours Islamic radicals and foments terrorism. This alliance is a new development helping China to strengthen its geopolitical hold in the emerging bipolarity between this ambitious power and the US.
Xi Jinping has succeeded in acquiring a complete hold on CPC and the State, but he is also placed in a situation of great test as the Chinese President, since formidable challenges have arisen for him in geopolitics, economy and trade, security on the marine front, internal problem of keeping diverse religious communities and demographies together and dealing with the issues of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
The democratic powers led by the US have sharpened their opposition to China in military, diplomatic and technological spheres. Sinicization is a deliberate approach, but it also betrays a defensive outlook. Certainly a distinct playing up of nationalism that restricts Marxism to keeping CPC supreme and wants its Socialist content to get specially attuned to ‘Chinese characteristics’, can not go unnoticed by strategic analysts.
India’s China policy is realistic and strong enough – we must measure up to PLA’s tactics on the LAC, keep up our commitment to Quad, step up our diplomatic effort to expose the sinister Sino-Pak military alliance, deny any trade leverage to China and continue to build our Defence potential as a long term strategy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s regime has to be complimented for following all these leads in keeping with India’s status and aspirations as a major world power.
(The writer is a former Director of Intelligence Bureau)
It is time that Chinese diplomats understood that aggression rarely works in diplomacy that requires dialogue and squanders the geopolitical gains to be made, a report by Pushkar Sinha
A Foreign Policy magazine report has recently spotlighted that Chinese President Xi Jinping appreciates the confrontational style of rhetoric called “wolf warrior diplomacy”, that has been radiating from Beijing.
The offensive diplomatic attack against foreign nations, pursued by Chinese mandarins was coined after Rambo-style Chinese action film Wolf Warrior-2 was released in 2017. Social media platforms have been chosen as the launchpads for this style of in-your-face diplomacy.
But the Chinese diplomatic offensive is now backfiring. The staff-in-charge of these social media accounts are usually lower ranking officials, who have demonstrated a tendency to make embarrassing errors. For example, the twitter account of Chinese ambassador of Britain, Liu Xiamong “liked” an explicit video on twitter, creating a hilarious social media storm. It also brought to light the account’s history of liking posts that criticised the Chinese government, as reported by Business World.
Chinese ambassador of Britain, Liu Xiamong
Given the heavily surcharged political mood in China, online jingoistic rhetoric is often seen as a way to get noticed by junior bureaucrats. This leads to bombastic- and often mediocre bureaucrats getting promoted in periods of heightened political tension than the diligent individuals diplomacy requires.
Since these lower ranking officials are known to be pliable and pose less of a threat, the high-level officials act as patrons to them to eliminate the fear of betrayal in an atmosphere of political paranoia. But the challenging external environment faced by China, coupled with the rise of mediocre officials can wreck international relations.
In March 2021, the US, UK, Canada and EU targeted sanctions on officials responsible for alleged genocide of Uyghur Muslims, as reported by The Financial Times. Beijing retaliated with an unbelievable counteroffensive, with the diplomatic and state media accounts tweeting about the province 2000 times and attacking European academics, parliamentarians and think tanks, marking an eight-fold spike in frequency. But this quantity has not translated into quality. Many posts focus on the west’s human rights record, sprouting a clumsy moral equivalence.
The flood of propaganda posts is only fuelling a backlash and scathing criticism among foreign governments. For instance, the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) shared an offensive post on its official Weibo account that juxtaposed images of a Chinese rocket launch and cremations in India. Naturally, the Indians reacted with anger and disgust. Even though the post was deleted after 5 hours, other lower-level official accounts such as the Hainan Provincial Public Security Bureau, continued to share the post.
The French foreign trade minister has commented that China cannot respond to legitimate concerns about the treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang by intimidating academics and parliamentarians. Even Japan had to call out China in a strongly worded criticism urging action to improve the human rights condition for Uyghurs and stop a crackdown in Hong Kong, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
A global riposte, including smaller and less developed countries, to China’s unpalatable Wolf Warrior diplomacy is now beginning to show. For instance, on May 11, Taiwan’s foreign minister went ballistic when China sought to deny Taipei’s membership of the World Health Organization (WHO). The Chinese argue that mainland China was taking care of Taiwan’s interest.
Chinese President and General Secretary of Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping (Xinhua/Ju Peng/IANS)
In his tweet-storm Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu thundered. “Shameless lies! Just goes to show the CCP can’t tell the truth,” he wrote. “After what #Beijing has done to #Xinjiang, #Tibet & #HongKong, no sane person would believe it could take care of #Taiwan’s health needs or otherwise. Think about #COVID19 & African swine fever. Thank God we aren’t under #China’s control! Please help us keep it at a distance.”
Even prior to Taiwan’s comeback, the Philippines Foreign Secretary Teddy Locsin told China on May 4 to “GET THE F*** OUT” of its South China Sea exclusive economic zone.
And on May 11 Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister, A.K. Abdul Momen, told reporters, in response to China’s warning to Dhaka against joining the Quad alliance with the United States, Japan, India, and Australia that, “We are an independent and sovereign state. We decide our foreign policy. Any country can uphold its position. But we will take decisions considering the interest of [our] people and the country.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping during their discussions at the Informal Summit, in Tamil Nadu’s Mahabalipuram (Photo IANS,MEA)
It is time that Chinese diplomats understood that aggression rarely works in diplomacy that requires dialogue and squanders the geopolitical gains to be made. In case China persists with its Wolf Warrior game, it could also hurt its economy, as diplomatic threats feed into the domestic politics of targeted countries, where opposition parties can legitimately question leaders of pursuing business-as-usual policy with Beijing, even under humiliating threats.
(This content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)
The G7 last week called on Xi on everything from actions on Taiwan, incursions in cyberspace, human-rights abuses, fallout from its Belt and Road Initiative…reports Asian Lite News
As Chinese President Xi Jinping’s hard-line policies beyond Chinese shores are squandering Beijing’s soft power, doubts are emerging over Xi securing an unprecedented third term.
The G7 last week called on Xi on everything from actions on Taiwan, incursions in cyberspace, human-rights abuses, fallout from its Belt and Road Initiative. The same week, Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong received another 10-months in jail for his role in 2019 anti-government protests, writes William Pesek for Nikkei Asia.
At the same time, he suspended a ministerial economic dialogue with Canberra, with his government hitting Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s for a “Cold War mindset” and “ideological discrimination”.
Xi Jinping
Pesek wrote that China’s inner circle is miffed about Morrison’s questions, which everyone should be asking – on COVID-19 and its demands for a seat on the G7 table despite being irresponsible for the pandemic.
Much of South Asia avoids getting at Xi’s bad side. After South Korea welcomed a US-designed Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missile-defense system, Chinese tourism flows to Seoul disappeared.
Xi had a once-in-lifetime opportunity to grow Beijing’s soft power at America’s expense amid trade wars between then US President Donald Trump. However, he blew it and China’s international image in international polls has lost ground since 2018.
As the COVID-19 ravaged the world, Xi’s belligerence deserves considerable blame – with Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Galwan border clash with India, Canada and more.
Chinese President Xi Jinping
Meanwhile, current US President Joe Biden is pivoting the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue against China, much to Xi’s chagrin, with additional resistance from China.
Pesek for Nikkei Asia wrote that despite the common view that the Chinese President does not care what the world thinks, press freedom in China is racing in the wrong direction and Xi himself seems to fear Google and Facebook.
These actions signal insecurity and a dearth of savvy that a leading power needs to exploit at the moment and thus not a great report card a year out from Xi’s plan to secure yet another term. (ANI)
The Covid-19 pandemic provided an opportunity for China to overtake the US in comprehensive global power, given that Xi Jinping has managed the aftermath of the pandemic much better than the leaders of the major countries of North America, Europe and Asia, writes Prof. Madhav Nalapat
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken very quickly echoed Henry Kissinger’s recent lament that “tensions between the US and the PRC needed to be reduced before another Cold War took place”. Blinken called on China to return to the “approved path of international cooperation”. Kissinger may be excused in view of his history, but it is a surprise that Secretary Blinken seems unaware of the Battle of Systems that China is engaged in with the US and other major democracies. The CCP leadership believes that theirs is by far the better system, and that in the ongoing contest between the two superpowers, its system will ensure that Beijing prevail over Washington.
The US Secretary of State seems to have missed what has been out in the open for at least the past six years: that Xi is engaged in a rivalry that will end only with a meltdown in one or the other of the competing systems of governance. This is a contest whose acceleration has been triggered by the 2008 financial crash caused by Wall Street. Every President of the US since Richard Nixon held the view that the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would permit it to accept permanently the primacy of Washington over Beijing in the international order.
It took the street-smart instincts of a New York builder to finally in 2017 enter the thinking of US President Donald J. Trump that CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping had not just accelerated the party’s longstanding drive towards global primacy, but had set a timeline and begun to implement what seemed to the CCP leadership to be a winning strategy. A plan designed to ensure the downfall of US global primacy.
BLINKEN TOO MUCH THE OPTIMIST
Events in Hong Kong have been taken by the CCP as exposing the danger of its earlier “One Country Two Systems” policy. The risk was that a growing public preference for a less restrictive system, should that (as in Hong Kong) deliver a better lifestyle than the mechanism based on the monopoly of authority of the CCP. Which is why Xi has ensured that the system in Hong Kong has been brought closer to that in the PRC. It is now “One Country, One System” so far as residents of that Special Autonomous Region are concerned.
Until Xi Jinping demonstrates to the people of China and to the rest of the world the superiority claimed by the CCP governance system, to the people, the risk is that more and more PRC citizens may convert to the same mindset that set much of Hong Kong’s population on an openly confrontational course with Beijing over five years ago. Such manifestations of public discontent against the restrictions that the CCP leadership believes essential are regarded as an existential (and exogenous) threat by the CCP leadership. For Anthony Blinken to believe that Xi would walk back (from a path that is regarded by the CCP leadership as essential to the continuation of its rule) may be somewhat optimistic.
A financial analyst based in Hong Kong discovered in 2015 that the PRC had slowed down almost to a stop its purchase of US debt with the dollars earned from the trade deficit that the US had long had with China. The deficit was partly the consequence of the unprecedented flow of currency pumped into the economy by the US Federal Reserve Board. This boosted consumer demand, which was met mainly by production from China. After all, this was where several manufacturing chains had shifted as a consequence of the “devil take the hindmost” approach of Wall Street-tilted US government policy since the period in office of Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.
As long as Beijing bought US treasury bills using the money it made through trade with Washington, both countries benefitted. China from increased economic growth, the US through fiscal spending cushioned by sales of debt to the biggest source of manufactures into the US. It did not take rocket science for Xi Jinping’s advisors to realise that the reason that the US dollar value was remaining firm despite ballooning deficit spending was through the accumulation of US debt by China. Should that slow down and finally stop altogether, the US government would no longer have the money to fund even its military, and would consequently enter a period of decline.
The Covid-19 pandemic provided an opportunity for China to overtake the US in comprehensive global power, given that Xi Jinping has managed the aftermath of the pandemic much better than the leaders of the major countries of North America, Europe and Asia. Deficit spending—necessary to ensure the avoidance of an economic collapse, shot up to record levels during the pandemic under both Trump as well as now Biden. When Secretary of State Blinken talks of Beijing returning to the international rules of the game, what he means is that China should revert to its pre-Xi policy of funding the US deficit by purchasing Treasury bills. This when Xi has switched the surpluses got through trade with the US (and other countries, including India) from buying US debt to investing in Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) projects and in the purchase of gold from central banks in countries, most of whom are NATO members. The BRI is designed to ensure that Beijing emerges as the hub of Eurasian commerce and logistics.
UNPRECEDENTED CHALLENGE TO INDIA AND U.S.
Simultaneously, General Secretary Xi has begun the (inevitable for other large economies as well) transition to a digital currency, the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). Xi expects that this rollout will lead to a movement towards the RMB when the US dollar goes in for the painful reset that his tactics are designed to be about. About the change in outlook from Asia-Pacific to the Indo-Pacific, the objection that the CCP leadership has to such a shift is that they would like it to happen after Beijing displaces Washington as the dominant power in these waters, and not before. Apart of course from the importance given to India in the Indo-Pacific construct now being adopted by most of the Atlantic Alliance partners. CCP General Secretary Xi is working to a plan designed to ensure that India never reaches anywhere near its potential.
This has been operationalised in an increasingly transparent manner since the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor was launched a year after the “Heir to Mao”, Xi, took charge as CCP General Secretary in 2012. The leaders of India and the US are hopefully aware of the unprecedented magnitude of the challenge facing both of them. Plus the need to cobble up a strategy smart enough to overcome it. Nostrums of the past, which in different types of packaging is what Xi Jinping expects both Delhi and Washington to adhere to, will be even less effective in the new situation than they were in the past, when the US sleepwalked into creating its most potent challenger ever.
CHINA EXPECTS INDIA WILL UNDERPERFORM
In the case of India, the failure of the Union Government to anticipate the March 2021 second wave of the pandemic and prepare for it strengthened the confidence within the CCP that the country remains tethered through an outdated governance system. They believe that this will ensure that India remains true to its longstanding tradition of under-performance. The CCP expects that the pulls and pressures of competing lobbies will reduce the level of US-India security cooperation to levels safe for the PLA to operate in the Indo-Pacific region, on land, air and sea. In particular, that the operationalising of the Russian S-400 system by the Narendra Modi government will ensure that the trajectory of such relations fails to gain anywhere close to the altitude needed for both countries to work (together with other Quad members) on ensuring freedom of navigation to all and ASEAN’s right to seabed exploration in its share of the waters of the Indo-Pacific.
Just as the effects of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic ensured the defeat of President Trump, it is expected that the same factor will work to ensure that the BJP loses the public trust needed to win the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Hope in a better life under Modi and belief in his competence by voters is what ensured the BJP victory in 2014 and 2019. It is calculated that this hope and belief the Prime Minister will deliver on what he had promised, will get reduced with each passing day as a consequence of the handling by the Modi government of the Covid-19 crisis.
Thus far, it would appear that not a single individual in the numerous committees set up in early 2020 to battle the pandemic (and which have visibly failed to perform) has been brought to account. Whether the intervention of the Prime Minister to set matters right a month ago will suffice to turn the tide remains a matter of speculation. A forensic audit is needed of why there were delays in approving (a) those who came up with plans for new vaccines (b) production and dispersion of oxygen equipment and (c) neglect of the need to identify and ramp up the production of pharmaceuticals proved to be useful in the treatment of Covid-19.
The loss of political support has been added on to by the feeble response of North Block to the emergency caused by the pandemic, which ought to have led the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India in early 2020 itself into loosening purse strings much more than what was done. For example, by giving financial assistance to the over 26 million migrant workers stranded by the lockdown in cities all over India, so that there would not be the panic rush to their home states that was seen during the biggest lockdown in world history.
As yet, on the ground small and medium units are not getting the benefits that are being touted for schemes designed to keep them in business. Hundreds of thousands of small businesses have been shut down since the start of 2020, as have tens of thousands of medium and more than a few large businesses. What has been ramped up is a flight of entrepreneurs and innovators to locations outside India, a flight that began during the Police Constable (PC) days of the UPA and its coercive measures. Instead of dismantling these, many were added on to during Modi 1.0, and it is only during Modi 2.0 has the necessary reversal of such enterprise-killing policies has started to be carried out. As for the Quad evolving into a security mechanism, policies are yet to be discerned that move away from the standard Lutyens line of ambiguity and ambivalence.
CHINA EXPECTING DINOS TO SABOTAGE BIDEN
In the case of the US, the CCP leadership is looking towards DINOs (Democrats in Name Only). They believe that DINOs will derail the transformative reforms that President Biden and Vice-President Harris are seeking to navigate through the US Congress. The expected loss by the Democrats in the 2022 elections to the US House of Representatives and the Senate (assuming such a sabotage of the Biden-Harris policies) will further convince the CCP leadership that its gamble of accelerating the pace of transformation of the global order will pay off without triggering a kinetic conflict. The PLA is likely to lose such a contest, whether on land or sea, were the Quad to graduate to becoming a genuine security alliance rather than remain a talking shop.
In the meantime, CCP efforts will continue to topple the US dollar from its position as (i) the global unit of account and (ii) the world’s reserve currency. Petroleum, for example, is being increasingly bought by the PRC on payment of RMB rather than USD, reportedly even from Saudi Arabia. The calculation in Beijing is that a sudden decline of even 20% in the value of the dollar will lead to selling pressure that would force it down to much lower levels, thereby opening the field to the digital (and gold-backed) alternative being developed by Xi. Given the manner in which the CCP leadership is working to a plan designed to displace the US by first displacing the economy as the biggest in the world, later the US dollar and finally, end the lead of the US in advanced technology, it may be a sign of a disconnect from current reality that Henry
A. Kissinger still expects that a reconciliation is possible between Beijing and Washington except on surrender terms. In other words, the “White Flag” terms negotiated by the Trump administration with the Taliban, and which seems to have been accepted by President Biden. Meanwhile, the Central Bank Digital Currency (the digital RMB) will be getting ready in time for the anticipated dollar reset. Clearly, the CCP leadership believes that both the wallet as well as the gun are essential in the pursuit of power.
PLAN FOR SUCCESS
The assumption underpinning such calculations by the CCP leadership is that the Quad will not, owing to contradictory policies of its members, develop the structures needed to ensure a united response to efforts by the PLA to expand the land, air and sea space controlled by the PRC. And that business logic will prevent substantial de-coupling of production units from China to other locations. India was seen by many corporates as a suitable alternative, but that was before the second wave of SARS-CoV-2 struck. Should Prime Minister Modi do the impossible and be able to turn things around in India during the next two weeks, that would pose a significant challenge to the plans of the CCP leadership to ensure that the PRC remains the manufacturing (and increasingly the technological) hub of the world.
Should President Biden succeed in getting his plans for rejuvenation of the US economy and society approved by the US Congress, that would be a second blow to the CCP leadership. The months ahead will tell if India and the US can get their act together in time to enable a reversal of the progress made by the PRC. Both the authoritarian as well as the democratic systems are on test, and the outcome depends on who will come out the winner, Xi or Modi and Biden. As matters stand, even sufficient pairing between the two biggest democracies in the world remains a work in progress. The weeks ahead need to be much more productive than past months have been. Cold War 2.0 is very much a Zero Sum game.
The latest move by China can be considered as its technological battle with the United States, reports Asian Lite News
China is reportedly barring military and government personnel from using Tesla vehicles, citing a potential data security risk posed by the Elon Musk-run electric carmaker.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal citing sources, people who work for the “military, state-owned enterprises in sensitive industries, and other government agencies” will be asked not to drive a Tesla vehicle.
“The Chinese government has informed some of its agencies to ask their employees to stop driving Tesla cars to work,” the report mentioned.
Tesla cars have also been reportedly banned from driving into housing compounds for families of personnel working in sensitive industries and state agencies.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk. (File photo: IANS)
“They were told by their agencies that among the government’s concerns is that Tesla vehicles can be constantly in record mode, using cameras and other sensors to log various details, including short videos”.
The Chinese government is concerned that those images can be sent back to the US.
The Chinese regulators are also taking a closer look at Tesla operations in the country after recent videos on social media showed a Model 3 battery fire and malfunctioning vehicles.
Tesla said in a statement that its “privacy protection policy complies with Chinese laws and regulations”.
“Tesla attaches great importance to the protection of users’ privacy,” the electric carmaker added.
Tesla Model Y. (Photo: Twitter/@Tesla)
The restriction on Tesla comes as Chinese President Xi Jinping “increasingly moves China away from foreign technology as Beijing’s technological battle with the US intensifies”.
The move comes at a time when the US has labeled smartphone maker Huawei a national security threat, restricting its business activities with the US companies.
Tesla which has its Gigafactory in Shangai is set to enter India this year to tap into the million-dollar opportunity as the country warms up to EVs.
China is the largest market for electric vehicles in the world, and Tesla is the top seller of such vehicles.
The company also plans to build a supercharger manufacturing factory in Shanghai, which is expected to be operational soon.
On January 7, the US electric carmaker launched a project to manufacture Model Y vehicles in the Shanghai Gigafactory, its first overseas plant outside the US.
Tesla has opened its largest supercharger station worldwide, with 72 charging piles set up in the Jing’an District of Shanghai.
As of the end of 2020, the automaker has built more than 600 supercharger stations in China.
