The Biden-Xi virtual confrontation confirms Beijing’s stalemate and shadow over Taiwan
The virtual summit between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, while not producing sensational results, nevertheless showed once again what are the differences between a closed society (in the Popperian sense of the term) and an open one. By this I mean that we have a lot of information about the US political situation (sometimes too much), which allows us to make judgments based on facts. Even if, obviously, starting from the same data often diverging interpretations are reached.
Nothing similar happens in the People's Republic. The plenum of the Communist Party of China closed with the planned coronation of Xi Jinping as president for life, and with his rise to the Olympus of the fatherland's founding fathers. However, we are not allowed to know whether, under the unanimous facade, dissensions on the leader's line are hidden or not.
Indeed, it seems that a clear invitation emerged from the plenum not to exacerbate the tension with the United States too much. This would explain the very pragmatic attitude adopted by Xi in the virtual meeting with his American counterpart (and old acquaintance). However, these are conjectures, since it may have been the Chinese president himself who chose such a strategy without taking into account the inputs from the plenum.
What's the problem? Obviously the fact that, in the Chinese case, we have to rely on various conjectures and signals. Since there is no mass media and press autonomous from the Party, and therefore independent, in the Land of the Dragon, we know nothing of what really happened in the plenum, except for the little that the Party leaks.
Not that what little is to be underestimated, on the contrary. We know, for example, that Xi, in the course of the proceedings, underlined the serious mistakes made by Mao Zedong regarding the "Great Leap Forward" and the "Cultural Revolution", adding that these errors caused disasters such as to endanger stability. of the Party itself and of the entire nation. Heavy criticism, therefore, which makes it clear that it is perhaps wrong to attribute to the current president the desire to return to Maoism.
The battle to the death waged by Xi against Bo Xilai and the CCP's so-called "Maoist left" would therefore not have been inspired by ideological motives. Rather, it was a pure power struggle, aimed at forever crushing a popular figure among the leading and middle cadres of the Party, which could jeopardize the rise of Xi Jinping. Very successful battle. Bo Xilai, in fact, has disappeared and we only know that he is locked up in some prison, perhaps subjected to the usual treatment of political "re-education".
It is also important to note that instead, for Deng Xiaoping, Xi had only words of praise, and this suggests that he considers himself the heir of the pragmatic Deng rather than the revolutionary Mao. Nor should we be surprised that the praise also extends to the Tiananmen Square massacre with which, in his opinion, "Deng took a clear stand, defending power and safeguarding the interests of the people." It seems to understand, therefore, that the current leader fully shares the turning point of Deng Xiaoping, who decisively refused to combine political reforms with economic ones.
Basically, Xi always has in mind the idea of an "eternal" Communist Party, destined to govern the country forever, as well as the sole guarantor of national unity and stability. He, like previous leaders, does not care that this role is sanctioned by the popular vote. It is a fetish of liberal democracies (or "bourgeois", as they used to say), while in China the project of a socialist state and, at the same time, prosperous from an economic point of view is being realized. That is why the demands of Hong Kong's democratic forces were quashed before the "electoral desire" spread to the rest of the country.
It should be noted that during the virtual interview, Xi rejected all Biden's requests relating to respect for human rights in Tibet, Xinjiang and in Hong Kong itself. Arguing, as always, that it is China's internal affairs in which foreigners must not intrude. The American president then leaked that the United States could boycott the Olympic Games that will be held in Beijing in 2022, but this does not seem like a move destined to impress the Chinese that much.
Even on the most important issue – that of Taiwan – there was a stalemate. Biden reiterated the US will to defend all allies from external aggression but, at the same time, confirmed that the United States intends to abide by the policy expressed by the slogan "one China". There is no hope for Taiwan to re-establish formal diplomatic relations with Washington, but there is still the will to defend the island even with weapons, if necessary. Weak position, which lends itself to Beijing's authoritarian temptations.
As I said at the beginning, the virtual meeting underlined that the countries that adopt the model of the open society are in difficulty when they find themselves in a situation of conflict with nations governed by authoritarian regimes. The latter do not need or seek free elections, and this fact makes them more stable than their opponents. And the absence of independent mass media allows them to project an image of perhaps greater strength than the real one. The problem concerns us directly, since the Italian political world includes several personalities – even prominent ones – sensitive to the sirens of Beijing, and who never miss an opportunity to underline the advantages offered by the "Chinese model". This is why it is important to be vigilant. Order and stability certainly represent an advantage, as long as they are not achieved thanks to the annulment of all freedom.
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This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/il-confronto-virtuale-biden-xi-conferma-lo-stallo-e-lombra-di-pechino-su-taiwan/ on Sat, 20 Nov 2021 03:48:00 +0000.