China China China
Reacting to Xi Jinping’s Davos Speech By Charles Parton | 28 January 2021
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Publish date: Thu, 20 Jan 2022, 03:22 PM
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China, the country that has gone through one of the fastest economic transformations the world has ever seen.
You see, for the last 30 years, China's economy has grown significantly. Due to industrialization. China has achieved similar economic growth which previously took decades to achieve for the western world. The country has managed to become the world's factory and the 2nd biggest economy. But in recent times things have been changing, and not in a good way.
You see, for the last 30 years, China's economy has grown significantly. Due to industrialization. China has achieved similar economic growth which previously took decades to achieve for the western world. The country has managed to become the world's factory and the 2nd biggest economy. But in recent times things have been changing, and not in a good way.
Two veteran China watchers comment on Xi Jinping’s keynote address to The Davos Agenda 2021 | World Economic Forum. This is part two. Read part one here.
In the early 1980s the UK embassy in Beijing used to put on an internal Christmas pantomime. In one scene a Chinese minister gave a speech in English which was interpreted – in English. The minister spoke in cliches, while the ‘interpreter’ voiced his real meaning. The laugh was in the contrast. For those of us who regularly sit through speeches of Chinese ministers, relieving the tedium by indulging in unvoiced ‘simultaneous interpretation’ is a common pastime. Listening to Xi at Davos, I indulged.
Xi’s speech has the normal quota of lead-footed, tin-eared, silver(plate)-tongued rhetorical flourishes. We can bear with those. But where does contradiction between oratory and reality career into hypocrisy?
Dividing the speech into the good, the bad and the ugly risks an accusation of cynicism. After all, as the American mathematician, singer and philosopher Tom Lehrer noted, we are all in favour of “peace and justice and brotherhood”. But what hits you about this speech is that gap between rhetoric and reality. Still, who is being cynical? Is it I or is it Xi? You judge.
The Good
Who could quarrel with sentiments such as the need to “close the divide between developed and developing countries and jointly bring about growth and prosperity for all”? Or together to face global challenges such as public health and climate change? We do indeed need to “to reform and improve the global governance system on the basis of extensive consultation and consensus-building”, “build an open world economy, uphold the multilateral trading regime, discard discriminatory and exclusionary standards, rules and systems, and take down barriers to trade, investment and technological exchanges”. On the surface there is plenty to agree with. But marine life is lived in the deep waters, not on the surface.
…The Bad….
Chinese is a witty language. The ‘xiehouyu’ (歇后语) is a two-part statement of which the second half is not spoken, because just by saying the first innocent-sounding half everyone knows the undermining and unsaid put-down. This came to mind when Xi talked of closing “the divide between developed and developing countries…” Well, guess what? The CCP insists that China, the world’s second biggest economy, is still a developing country. So agree to the Xi sentiment and follow the logic by allowing China special treatment is the corollary.
Or take this: “Each country is unique with its own history, culture and social system, and none is superior to the other.” The unspoken second half is to recall Xi’s first speech to the Politburo in 2013: “Most importantly, we must concentrate our efforts on ….. building a socialism that is superior to capitalism, and laying the foundation for a future where we will win the initiative and have the superior position.” Meanwhile claims of the superiority of CCP governance compared to western democracy are ubiquitous.
Who could object to “building an open world economy, upholding the multilateral trading regime, discarding discriminatory and exclusionary standards, rules and systems, and taking down barriers to trade, investment and technological exchanges.” But who can forget the unspoken part – at least not mentioned at Davos, even if frequent in internal speeches: “.. we need to reshape our industrial chains by stepping up technological innovation and import substitution across the board….. China must be basically self-sufficient in food production and industrial development. We must never forget this.” (Xi Jinping at the 7th meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Commission on 10 April 2020.) Not just excerpts from speeches, but the whole thrust of the Dual Circulation policy and the echoes of Mao’s self-sufficiency (自力更生) point towards divergence, if not decoupling.
Meanwhile some parts are just autopilot oratory, full of sound and sense, but signifying nothing: “We should reject the outdated Cold War and zero-sum game mentality, adhere to mutual respect and accommodation, and enhance political trust through strategic communication.” Er, of course, Mr. Xi.
.…And the Ugly
It is hardly necessary to comment. And difficult not to see red.
-“To build small circles or start a new Cold War, to reject, threaten or intimidate others [‘wolf warrior diplomacy’], to wilfully impose decoupling [see above], supply disruption or sanctions [Norway, South Korea, Canada, Australia trade], and to create isolation or estrangement [Taiwan] will only push the world into division and even confrontation.”
– “Second, we should stay committed to international law and international rules instead of seeking one’s own supremacy. Without international law and international rules that are formed and recognized by the global community, the world may fall back to the law of the jungle, and the consequence would be devastating for humanity. [South China Sea, Hong Kong Joint Declaration, failure to ratify, let alone observe, international covenants on human rights, unwillingness to be bound by bodies such as the International Criminal Court]
And some of the hypocrisy is brain-numbing:
“There will be no human civilization without diversity, and such diversity will continue to exist for as long as we can imagine. Difference in itself is no cause for alarm. What does ring the alarm is arrogance, prejudice and hatred; it is the attempt to impose hierarchy on human civilization or to force one’s own history, culture and social system upon others.” Agreed. But tell that to the Uyghurs.
“The strong should not bully the weak. Decision should not be made by simply showing off strong muscles or waving a big fist. …..and rules, once made, should be followed by all.” “Resolve disagreements through consultation and dialogue.” This from the mouth of the leader of a government which will not even return the calls of Australian ministers, who are trying to ‘resolve disagreements’.
“We need to give full play to the role of the World Health Organization in building a global community of health for all.” [So will you stop blocking Taiwan’s membership of the WHO?].
How will people react to Xi’s speech?
Self-serving lackeys will trumpet it as ‘historic’, the description of Davos’ guardian Klaus Scwab himself.
There will be applause from some businessmen and others such as the doyens of the retired and redundant politicians’ club, hoping for post-inoculation ego-stoking invitations to Beijing.
The naïve, clutching at driftwood in stormy seas and hoping to avoid the depths of decoupling or divergence, will wistfully hope that the CCP is as Xi portrays.
The sensible will see the speech as confirmation of the need to be less trusting of the CCP, in Gramsci’s words to exercise “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.
And we ‘China watchers’ will see it as more platitudinous propaganda, laced with rank hypocrisy, a cynical attempt to occlude the truth. Xi wants to see a future of what the Central Propaganda Department has called a ‘China solution’, a horrible echo on this, the Holocaust Memorial Day, since it brings to mind Xinjiang. His speech mentions three times “building a community with a shared future for mankind”. The trouble is that we are now aware of what that means, and it is a future which we don’t want to share.
Perhaps Xi does not care about the reception of his speech. Like the counterproductive external Covid propaganda campaign, it nevertheless plays well within China, where the leader bestriding a ragged world stage is a fine contrast to the ‘century of humiliation’. Maybe, but an increasing gap between rhetoric and reality destroys trust. That aids decoupling and is dangerous.
This essay may be an exercise in interpreting ‘what the minister says’ as an aid to relieving its tedium. But somehow the fun has gone. This is not pantomime; it is serious drama.
Charlie Parton spent 22 years of his 37 year diplomatic career working in or on China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. In his final posting he was First Counsellor in the EU delegation in Beijing until late 2016. His focus is on Chinese politics and internal developments, and how those might affect UK interests. In 2017 he set up his own consultancy, China Ink, and was chosen as the UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee Special Adviser on China. He is a Senior Associate Fellow at RUSI.
The views expressed on this blog are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of the SOAS China Institute.
https://blogs.soas.ac.uk/china-institute/2021/01/28/reacting-to-xi-jinpings-davos-speech/
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Discussions
Be the first to like this. Showing 27 of 27 comments
A delicately crafted passage on diversity, tolerance, and other benign attributes of peaceful coexistence didn’t refer the treatment of the Uighur people, which has attracted the term ‘genocide’ as defined under the United Nations Genocide Convention; nor, the abrogation of the 1997 handover agreement and harsh crackdown in Hong Kong under the new National Security Law. Both figure prominently in a catalogue of human rights and legal abuses, and extra-judicial punishments.
In a prominent section at the start of the 4 recommendations about how to uphold multilateralism, Xi says “to start a new Cold War, to reject, threaten, or intimidate others, to wilfully impose decoupling, supply disruption or sanctions, and to create isolation or estrangement, will only push the world into division and even confrontation”. He should know.
He might have been biting his tongue as he uttered these words, because he has undertaken all of these acts. Truculence in international relations has been a hallmark of Xi’s China for a few years now, and China has been no slouch when it comes to using commerce and trade as punishments, notably recently in the case of Australia. Indeed, the term coercive diplomacy has entered our language specifically to describe China’s actions of bullying and intimidation with regard to a slew of countries, including also Taiwan, India, and other countries in the Indo-Pacific and around the South China Sea, and in Europe. Interference, as opposed to the peddling of influence, in the domestic affairs and political processes of other countries is a common complaint.
China has been practicing selective decoupling for years in industrial policy, technology policies and the application of standards. There are now increased sensitivities about national security in the technology and other sectors everywhere, and new vulnerabilities to single source suppliers in key goods. China is no different. Its own self-reliance strategy for science and technology, angst about supply chains, and new focus on so-called Dual Circulation Strategy all speak to Chinese decoupling by other names.
Within a day or so of President Biden’s inauguration, moreover, and in a veiled threat to his team, China announced travel, financial and ‘future business’ sanctions against 28 Trump administration members and their families for ‘anti-China’ actions and rhetoric. It quickly publicised several fighter aircraft and large bomber sorties through Taiwanese airspace in the latest instance of bullying what China calls the ‘renegade province’.
Xi Jinping’s championing of globalisation at Davos in 2017 was a good bit of opportunism that lacked real substance. China isn’t and cannot be a globalisation leader. The pitch this week for ‘win-win multilateralism’ based around China’s global role, having seemingly conquered Covid, should be seen in the same way. The veiled criticisms at the US and others just remind us that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
Authoritarian control, the demand for compliance, and the suppression of debate have helped China manage a serious public health crisis, but they do not offer the world a helpful template to live and thrive.
George Magnus is a Research Associate at the SOAS China Institute and at the China Centre, Oxford University. He is the author of Red Flags: Why Xi Jinping’s China is in Jeopardy (Yale University Press, 2018).
The views expressed on this blog are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of the SOAS China Institute.
https://blogs.soas.ac.uk/china-institute/2021/01/28/mr-xi-zooms-into-davos/
2022-01-20 15:24
China crumbles under global pressure, quits its 9 dash lines claim
TFIglobal
382K subscribers
While the aggressive foreign policy approach had allowed Beijing to pursue these claims; with the country at its weakest, the global pressure has now forced China to abandon its 9 dash line theory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgezOgk7mQk
2022-01-20 20:24
北京周边出现断供潮，500万人逃离北京。中国的断供潮越来越严重，北京的房租却只升不降，经济萧条的背景下，大家纷纷逃离北京。
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OlRj19puxg
2022-01-21 13:43
倒闭潮席卷全国，实拍上海商场和东莞商业街，曾经的繁华已经消失不见，只剩下凄凄惨惨的倒闭门面，没有人逛街，曾经的热闹场景还能重现吗？
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2022-01-21 20:57
Posted by uncensored > Jan 22, 2022 3:01 PM | Report Abuse
China’s religion problem: Why the Chinese Communist Party views religious belief as a threat
Why the Chinese Communist Party views religious belief as a threat
Answer : Because religions are a disease! Religions have brought nothing but misery! Giving fake hope! Do you know Vatican church has 2 trillion lock up in their little bank! Do you know Vatican helped Nazi! Yeah, that's why China choose their own priests and disregard Vatican orders!
2022-01-22 17:04
Western believe in a theistic religion. Derived from Middle East. Salvation depends on an omnipotent God.
Chinese people believe in an humanistic teaching. This was written in the 易经 by Confucius. 天行健，君子以自强不息。地势坤，君子以后德载物。This is the fundamental belief system of the Chinese civilisation. Meaning: Human should follow 天 and 地。天 is incessantly energetic. Man must incessantly improve or strengthen oneself. 地 is humble and continuously support and norishes all beings. Man must treat all beings with respect and help/support all beings. 天同覆，地同载。
Under different belief systems people behave differently. Theistic religions train believers to think that they are chosen people of God and superior to non-believers. Historically, this had resulted in slavery and colonism.
Humanistic beliefs train people to treat all beings as equal and cultivate compassion to help less fortunate people. This humanistic belief does not support enslavement of people.
Humanistic beliefs do not rely on an external being for survival or overcome the challenges of existence.
The ancient Chinese observed nature carefully and drew the above conclusion and formulated their spiritual belief. It covers the laws of nature and Man's role and purpose in life.
When you mix theistic religion with politics and government that will be the end of good government. That is why the Chinese Communist Party views religious belief or Falun Gong as a threat.
2022-01-22 17:16
Sslee don't be that naive la... How many in China believed in Buddhism? Please tell me ok ?
2022-01-22 20:02
Don't you realised that Buddhism is from India. Marxism is from Germany. Will only Emperor imperial system originated from China.
Hahaha
Maybe that is why Xi so eager to adopt the Imperial system. Hehehe
2022-01-22 20:06
What if the Ancient Chinese Knew the God of the Bible
https://youtu.be/8XnT_KrrKLA
2022-01-22 20:11
Tobby ya ya you don't believed in God. Fine it is your choice that no one could force you. But please provided case study on your accusations that all religions are a disease! Religions have brought nothing but misery! Cases by case on Buddhism, Hinduism, Christian & others religions ....etc.
If you can't then you are the Biggest Liar of All.
》》》》》》》
Posted by Tobby > Jan 22, 2022 5:04 PM | Report Abuse
Posted by uncensored > Jan 22, 2022 3:01 PM | Report Abuse
China’s religion problem: Why the Chinese Communist Party views religious belief as a threat
Why the Chinese Communist Party views religious belief as a threat
Answer : Because religions are a disease! Religions have brought nothing but misery! Giving fake hope! Do you know Vatican church has 2 trillion lock up in their little bank! Do you know Vatican helped Nazi! Yeah, that's why China choose their own priests and disregard Vatican orders!
2022-01-22 20:16
What if the Ancient Chinese Knew the God of the Bible
https://youtu.be/8XnT_KrrKLA
2022-01-22 20:18
“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?” – Epicurus
2022-01-22 20:53
Sslee I guessed you don't believed in God. Like communist you anti religion.
You always thought God acted like CPC communists. You must followed what I said. Hahahaha
God is not like CPC. He give you freedom to choice.
2022-01-22 20:57
《神州十二號》看中國：從「漢字的構成」透看中國人傳統信仰
中國人寫中國字
讀書時候，或多或少也有疑問
為何中國字有這麼多筆劃啊?
但其實，筆劃的背後
每個中國字的結構
都隱藏著特別的意思和情境的描述
你又認識多少?
中國字的起源
可追溯到遠古
其創造和結構
都將當時代的情境、歷史、信仰
一一記錄下來
從商朝的甲骨文，慢慢演變成今天的漢字
而其中的文字類型── 會意字
更刻劃了許許多多
《聖經》中的真實故事
與及上帝的情深恩重
中國字
証明了中國人最遠古的信仰
就是《聖經》的獨一創造主── 耶和華 神！
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlu06JbgbDs
2022-01-22 21:11
中國人的起源與上帝的關係 01/03
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzdr46AV_Ic&list=PLM-9M-DmA6hj6HCaMbyUfGa5DnjnTEOuI
2022-01-22 21:13
崩潰！北京逾2千萬人行程碼帶星被禁錮；官方定性「惡意返鄉」炸鍋，海內外段子火爆熱傳；中共反腐大片評論大翻車；「最美海歸支教女碩士」徹底栽了；當局要求陸人不要國
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01:19 河南縣長「惡意返鄉」狂言一出 各種「惡意」段子應運而生【阿波羅網報道】
04:02 北京疫情升級 逾2千萬人行程碼全部帶星 百姓崩潰
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07:07 中國綜藝內幕爆料:脫口秀靠提詞器 比賽結果內定
09:24 加派F-22和F-35還不夠 美聯澳對抗中共有更大計劃
10:51 洛杉磯鐵道垃圾狼籍如第三世界 美媒分析3原因
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2022-01-24 15:12
Mao's Great Leap Forward - Cold War DOCUMENTARY
The Cold War
279K subscribers
Our historical documentary series on the history of the Cold War continues with a video on the Great Leap Forward - the Chinese industrialization plan enacted under the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party Mao Zedong, which ultimately led to a famine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUqDwoYYOSc
2022-01-24 15:47
73塊的酒你敢喝？中國比台灣便宜4倍，小粉紅感動哭了｜中國棄單立陶宛蘭姆酒，台灣賣600塊
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Mr. Xi zooms into Davos By George Magnus | 28 January 2021
Two veteran China watchers comment on Xi Jinping’s keynote address to The Davos Agenda 2021 | World Economic Forum. This is part one. Read part two here.
Davos, with the theme this year of Rebuilding Trust, was diminished as an event, perhaps also as a concept. The curtain-raiser was the keynote address by Chinese President Xi Jinping on multilateralism, openness and inclusivity in a fractious, pandemic world.
The audience was invisible. The applause, if there was any, was silent. Like 2017, though, there was still fawning, this time as World Economic Forum founder, Klaus Schwab, bookended Xi’s address, thanking him at the end for reminding that we are ‘all part of a community with a shared future for humanity’. Not quite Xi Jinping verbatim, but close enough. Yet, what did Xi Jinping say that was noteworthy, and perhaps as importantly, what didn’t he say that we should note?
Xi talked about the inevitable and widely shared goal of working together to conquer the pandemic and tackle climate change. There was of course, no mention of accountability or responsibility for the outbreak of the pandemic, or a thorough investigation to be shared, which might have got a ‘rebuilding trust’ checkmark. None either of the ways in which China has tried to blame the US, Italy, the UK and even the import of frozen foods, for Covid19, and unleash so-called ‘wolf warrior’ diplomacy, designed to accuse, bully and ridicule other countries suffering from the pandemic.
Xi’s speeches often embrace many platitudes, and flowery language that sometimes comes across as a corporate marketing brochure. The language can be quite disarming but it is used with great care to send clear, but sometimes, covert messages.
Message to the Global South
Xi made a familiar overture about the need to close the equality gap between emerging and advanced nations, and give the former more resources and a bigger say in global governance. There was an implicit message here that China, not the West, would champion their cause, but no mention of the fact that Chinese help is contingent on non-critical support for its and the party’s global narratives. The US and its allies, though, should take note.
Referring to openness and inclusivity, Xi indulged in a little martial arts to turn these liberal democratic exhortations against their liberal nation state protagonists, in view of the charges of protectionism, immigration curbs, and now ‘vaccine nationalism’. While it is true that China has used the pandemic to provide public health goods and vaccines to many countries, President Xi did not acknowledge that openness and inclusivity are not typically associated with China, and certainly not for migrants either from abroad or the 280 million from its own countryside who work in towns and cities.
President Xi said China will ‘further deepen South-South co-operation’, building the proverbial ‘community’ of nations which chooses to align within China’s political and economic orbit. Yet, many that have done so under the Belt and Road Initiative have pushed back against over-indebtedness to China, and poor project governance and competence.
Message to the US and liberal democracies
The message to the incoming Biden Administration and its allies was essentially a lecture about the need to uphold multilateralism, avoid ideological prejudice and division, and beware a new Cold War. Yet, as President Xi worked his way through the tasks the world must accomplish, it was hard not to see the disconnect between the message and the orator.
On macroeconomic policy co-ordination, he urged a ‘shift in the driving forces and growth models of the global economy’, but neglected to say that China, itself, was a laggard in this respect, and that the impetus for market-oriented reform and openness had run aground in 2015-16 and had, if anything, faded even further since for political and ideological reasons.
He stressed the need to abandon ideological prejudice, secure ‘win-win’ cooperation, and recognise that no country is superior to any other. Yet, he failed to acknowledge his own role in nurturing China’s long-term ideological struggle with the US and the West, in which socialism would emerge victorious over capitalism. He didn’t refer the formal rejection of western, liberal values and beliefs authorised in 2013. He didn’t say that China’s rhetoric , especially during the pandemic, has regularly asserted China’s superiority.
2022-01-20 15:23