[Epoch Times, March 18, 2022]According to the White House, on March 18, US President Joe Biden will hold a phone call with Xi Jinping to discuss issues such as US-China competition and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
White House press secretary Shaqi said in a news release that this is part of the two sides’ efforts to maintain an open communication channel between the United States and China, and the two will discuss issues of mutual concern such as managing competition between the two countries and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
This is the first time the two have spoken in the three weeks since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war. It is also the third phone call between the heads of state of the United States and China since Biden took office. The first two were in February and November 2021.
The White House chose this time to take the initiative to talk to the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party. Because on March 14, White House Security Advisor Sullivan and Yang Jiechi, Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China, had just had a seven-hour meeting in Rome. On October 6, 2021, Sullivan met with Yang Jiechi, paving the way for the meeting between the two heads of state, but the meeting between the two heads of state will take place on November 15, more than a month later.
There may be several reasons why Biden is so eager to meet Xi.
First, the Shayang talks, the two sides did not get a satisfactory result.
Judging from the briefing of the meeting after the meeting, the two sides insisted that although the US side said that “substantial progress” has been made, in fact, the US side has not been able to obtain the exact position of the CCP on the issue of the Russia-Ukraine war, especially that it does not support Russia. A clear commitment and statement against aggression. In the second announcement, the CCP talked about the Taiwan issue and changed the subject.
Second, the CCP continues to disrupt the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
The Russian-Ukrainian war is still going on, and the international community’s anti-war and anti-aggression voices are getting louder and louder, and the CCP is acting as a two-faced person and behind the scenes to support Russia, which has made it difficult for the United States and NATO to accept, especially on March 16, The International Court of Justice in The Hague ordered Russia to immediately stop its invasion of Ukraine. In a 13-2 vote, China voted against it again. It has gone further than China’s abstention in the previous UN condemnation of Russian aggression. This is consistent with the fact that the CCP has always been reluctant to use words such as “invasion” and “war” to talk about the war in Ukraine, but at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the CCP made it public.
The United States may feel that the CCP going on like this is dangerous, it is not in the interests of the United States and its allies, and it is very unfavorable to the war between Russia and Ukraine, and the head of state needs to come forward to manage differences.
Third, the effect of Zelensky’s speech to the US Congress.
On March 16, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a historic video speech at the American Congress, which was a great success. Borrowing from Martin Luther King’s famous speech “I have a dream,” Zelensky called for “I have a need” to send an SOS signal to the West. Zelensky also called on the US president, “You are the president of a country, the president of a great country, and I hope you are the leader of the world, the leader of the world, and the leader of maintaining world peace.”
Zelensky’s speech of courage, will and genius truly and strongly integrated the devastation of the war in Ukraine, the violation of universal human values, and the foundation of the nation’s innate human rights, freedom and democracy. On Capitol Hill, lawmakers from both parties gave an unprecedented round of applause and sincere enthusiasm to the president, from actor to hero.
Biden signed an order that afternoon to provide Ukraine with an additional $800 million in military aid, including the supply of “Switchblade” drones, Stinger surface-to-air missiles, and 500 sets of S-300 missile defense systems and other weapons. Biden also used “war criminals” to address Putin for the first time that day.
At almost the same time, Qin Gang, the wolf of the CCP, published an accusation in the China Post accusing the United States of publishing “fake news” about the CCP. Zelensky’s tragic speech and Qin Gang’s order to quibble made Biden feel the need to say something to Xi Jinping. It’s not too early.
Fourth, the CCP’s aid to Russia has entered the practical level.
The strategic layout of the Sino-Russian alliance against the West may have been quietly launched at the behest of Beijing. Previously, the Financial Times and other media reports confirmed that the CCP has been open to military aid to Russia. On March 18, the Russian media “Satellite News Agency” reported that the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union headed by Russia are coordinating the “single currency mechanism” with the CCP, aiming to establish a free international monetary and financial system. The basic principles will be finalized by the end of the month.
The idea came from Putin’s cronie, Sergey Glazyev, Commissioner for Integration and Macroeconomics of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported that Saudi Arabia is actively negotiating with the Chinese government to denominate some of its oil sales to China in yuan, with the aim of undermining the dollar’s dominance in global oil markets. The media also reported that Xi Jinping may visit Saudi Arabia in April.
Despite the above two actions, the impact on the USD-centralized Breeden Woods system is limited. However, it does reflect that a series of operations against the West, such as the CCP’s alliance with Russia to resist the United States, and the deployment of the Middle East to counter the United States, have entered the implementation level. In the face of Beijing’s various actions, the Russian-Ukrainian war is at a stalemate. It is imperative to put pressure on the CCP through the meeting of the heads of state in advance.
Fifth, the Russian-Ukrainian war is hopeful for peace, but the war is unlikely to stop.
In the fourth negotiation of the Russian-Ukrainian War, Zelensky had previously stated that he did not intend to join NATO. This has become an important basis for the two sides to negotiate, but there is still a long way to go on issues such as ceasefire and withdrawal of troops. On the Crimea issue and the Donbas issue, the two sides have contradictory demands and have not made concessions. Putin’s “de-Nazification” is not to be mentioned. After 22 days of fighting, Kyiv has not been won. Even in a military sense, Russia has lost. It should be done in three days or a week with its strength. To get it done, it also requires Chinese military assistance and recruiting mercenaries from Syria.
On March 15, the Prime Ministers of the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia visited Kyiv in safety. The video of Zelenskiy visiting the wounded soldiers in the hospital was circulated on the Internet, which shows that the security of Kyiv is still within the controllable range of the Ukrainian side. The US 800 million military aid is definitely a great threat to Russia.
At present, Russia and Ukraine have differences on the model of Ukraine’s neutrality. Zelensky rejected the Austrian and Swedish models proposed by Russia, insisting that a Ukrainian model of neutrality with practical and operational airspace security is needed. For this, Zelensky and Putin may need a meeting. And Putin is a strong man, and strong men are generally not easy to change and decide to admit defeat. In the negotiation between the strongman and the hero, if the outside world is just watching the chess without saying a word, this game of chess will be difficult to finish in a short time.
Biden’s “Ultimatum”, the CCP may soften its position
The high-level CCP’s propaganda is that both Russia and Ukraine maintain restraint and create a neutral image, but at the level of cultural propaganda, they use official accounts and international social media platforms to show a high degree of pro-Russian stance, and high-density blaming the United States on the biological and chemical weapons virus .
Voice of America reported that “Russia Announces Materials on U.S. Military Biological Program in Ukraine” hosted by People’s Daily topped the trending search list, attracting more than 260 million views and 30,000 discussions. “People’s Daily”, CCTV, Xinhua News Agency’s three major central media simultaneously promoted this topic, which is the treatment of the “two sessions” topic.
Liu Lipeng, who used to work on Internet censorship in the mainland and is now fleeing to the United States, told VOA, “It can be ranked number one in the hot search, and it must be done with an order.” The topic is pushed to the top of the trending search. The (Weibo) platform does not have this authority. The Chinese authorities are very disgusted with you creating current political topics yourself.”
Creating a sense of hatred against the United States and anti-American thinking has been the established policy of the CCP for many years, but in the era of appeasement in the West and the era of Deng Xiaoping’s reform and opening up, this kind of awareness and thinking mode has been pressed the pause button, but it is not that the program has been permanently removed from the shelves. . In recent years, the CCP has turned its full force to the left and confronted the United States, which has become the dominant style of national policy and nationalist sentiment.
However, the Western policy of appeasement towards the CCP has not completely faded away. Until now, the United States and Europe have not given up their efforts to unite China and control Russia. This is basically wishful thinking.
Biden is about to speak with Xi Jinping in order to manage differences and avoid conflict. But it cannot be ruled out that through the CCP’s wave operation on the issue of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the Biden administration has sobered up a lot. Interestingly, on March 24, Biden will go to Brussels to attend the NATO special summit and the European Council summit to discuss NATO and European defense affairs and declared support for Ukraine.
Before that, Biden suddenly wanted to call Xi Jinping. Perhaps Biden has realized that the Sino-Russian alliance will have an unforeseen impact on the security of NATO and Europe. Biden may issue a small “Ultimatum” to the CCP, send a deterrent signal to Beijing focusing on the Russian-Ukrainian war, and bring the CCP’s response to the NATO summit for discussion. The CCP’s position may soften a little and make some superficial gestures, but the strategic plan of using Russia to control the United States should not change easily.
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Responsible editor: Zhu Ying