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China’s Xi Jinping was unusually candid with US President Biden during their last meeting as leaders of their country.
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Xi outlined China’s “red lines” to the US, including the country’s rights to development.
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Beijing set the ground rules for the new Trump administration and its China hawks.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is gearing up for Trump 2.0 with some ground rules for the government’s China hawks.
Last weekend, Xi met US President Joe Biden at the 31st APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Lima, Peru. He told Washington not to cross the “four red lines” – which analysts say is a clear message for the incoming Trump administration.
The four hot-button issues are Taiwan, democracy and human rights, China’s path and system, and the country’s rights to development.
“These are the most important guardrails and safety nets for China-US relations,” Xi said, according to a readout from China’s Foreign Ministry.
Xi’s explicit message is notable because it appears to be the first time these “red lines” have been issued at the presidential level, said Igor Khrestin, director of global policy at the George W. Bush Institute, a think tank.
“This is an effort to ‘lay the floor’ for US-China relations in light of the uncertainty surrounding the second Trump administration,” Khrestin told Business Insider.
To be fair, this is not the first time Beijing has mentioned “red lines” in a diplomatic context, and the four no-go zones are consistent with China’s position on these issues. Foreign Minister Wang Yi has warned against crossing Beijing’s “red lines” in the past.
The comments show that Beijing is paying close attention to the appointment of China hawks in the Trump administration, including Florida Senator Marco Rubio – which has been sanctioned by Beijing – to the position of foreign minister.
Xi’s language raised some eyebrows, with analysts calling it “harsh” and finding the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s reading “strikingly negative” in some parts.
As Jersey Lee, an international affairs analyst, wrote on the website of the Lowy Institute think tank on Tuesday, Xi’s line that the US “always says one thing but does another is damaging to its own image and trust.” between China and the US’. United States’, is ‘surprisingly candid’.
Xi appointed Taiwanese President William Lai
Of the four ‘red lines’, Taiwan is the most sensitive issue between the two countries Xi has said this repeatedly over the years.
Beijing claims Taiwan as its territory and recently said it would never refrain from using force on the island. The area is strategically important to the US as a leader in semiconductor manufacturing and a key security hub.
The sensitivity to Taiwan is even more evident as this past weekend also marked the first time Xi reportedly mentioned Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party – whom Beijing has labeled a separatist – by name. Chinese leaders rarely mention Taiwanese leaders by name in public.
“If the US side is concerned about maintaining peace in the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it clearly sees the true nature of Lai Ching-te and the DPP authorities in pursuing ‘Taiwan independence’ , treats the Taiwan issue with extra caution and unequivocally opposes ‘Taiwan Independence’ and supports the peaceful reunification of China,” the Chinese ministry said.
However, Lai was not mentioned in the White House readout of the same meeting. That prompted Tsai Ming-yen, the director of Taiwan’s National Security Bureau, to question whether Chinese state media and the Foreign Ministry were using cognitive warfare tactics.
Rocky times before the US and China
In 2018, Trump said he had an “incredible relationship” with Xi. But things could change dramatically if the president-elect calls for 60% tariffs.
Beijing appears to prefer a more conciliatory approach with Trump’s new team in the short term to avoid dramatic developments, Khrestin said.
“Since the beginning of the all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Xi Jinping has consolidated his view that the United States and its allies have become persistent obstacles to China’s rightful rise as a dominant global power,” Khrestin said.
Trump 2.0 doesn’t change that long-term calculus, and the US-China relationship is likely to deteriorate in the long run because Beijing is inflexible on its “red lines,” he added.
Read the original article on Business Insider
