[Epoch Times, January 28, 2022](The Epoch Times reporters Luo Ya and Ning Haizhong reported) The countdown to the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics has begun. Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the 27th. During the call, he expressed annoyance at issues such as the diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics by the United States on human rights grounds. Experts have analyzed that this is because the international confrontation with the CCP has hurt its foot, and the boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics has also made the CCP disgraced.
According to the official website of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang Yi, following the CCP’s consistent practice, attributed the tension between China and the United States to the U.S. side, and raised three “immediate priorities” to Blinken. Play with fire and cards on the issue, and stop creating all kinds of anti-China ‘small circles'”.
During the call with Wang Yi, Blinken said that frequent communication between the foreign ministers of the two countries is very important, and he emphasized that the position stated by Biden in the meeting between the two heads of state has not changed. The US and China have both overlapping interests and differences, and the US is willing to manage differences in a responsible manner. The one-China policy of the United States has not changed.
Wang Yi’s “Three Stops” to the United States
In response to Wang Yi’s “three stops”, Li Youtan, a professor at the National Development Institute of National Chengchi University, said in an interview with The Epoch Times on January 28 that the CCP has long suppressed internal human rights and expanded externally, including suppressing Hong Kong and suppressing Taiwan. Yi’s performance shows that the confrontational actions of the international community have hit the CCP’s “painful foot”.
Li Youtan said: “The CCP is showing off its might, constantly sending military planes around Taiwan to intrude on Taiwan. The United States sees it very clearly, and has joined forces with Japan, Australia, India, and Europe to fight the CCP’s totalitarian expansion, hitting the CCP’s painful foot.”
He said that because the CCP virus (Wuhan virus, new crown virus) began to spread from Wuhan, it was out of control, and people were constantly holding the CCP responsible for the epidemic. At the same time, the world has seen the aggressive ambitions of the CCP’s foreign expansion. Not only the United States, but many liberal democrats are now calling for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics. Even if the Olympics are to be held, at least government officials should not attend and call on all companies not to sponsor such Olympics. .
“Speaking of interference (the Winter Olympics), if it can’t be held, it’s because of the epidemic, not because people don’t send government officials to attend.”
Wang Yi also asked the United States to “stop playing cards with fire on the Taiwan issue.”
Li Youtan said that the CCP likes to beat people and shout for help. The whole world sees Taiwan being threatened by the CCP. If Taiwan is threatened, it is not only closely related to Japan, but also to the South China Sea. Even Australia, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, is also under pressure. In this case, everyone unites to form a line of defense to prevent the CCP from using force against Taiwan. In the end, he said that he was playing with fire and playing cards, which was really upside-down.
In response to the third question, Wang Yi said that the United States has created various “anti-China and containment circles”, and Li Youtan said that internal suppression and external expansion are caused by the CCP’s authoritarian nature. When the United States sees the danger to the world brought about by the expansionist politics of the CCP, it joins forces with the European Union, as well as Japan, Australia, and India, and joins the military alliance of Australia and the United Kingdom. Especially this time, the US President talked with the Japanese Prime Minister, emphasizing the need to defend against the expansion of the CCP, and the result was a painful blow to the CCP.
“This is not a small circle, but the ambition of liberal democracies to unite together to curb the CCP’s foreign expansion.”
Li Youtan also said that Biden also proposed at last year’s Global Democracy Summit, not only to fight the rise of the CCP’s hegemony, but also to oppose corruption and safeguard human rights. “Because the CCP has also exported corruption during its expansion. That’s why the U.S.’s recent strategy has hit the CCP in the wrong foot, and he will cry a few times.”
Dong Siqi, deputy chief executive of a Taiwanese think tank, believes that Wang Yi is now using this method to speak to the United States. On the one hand, he hopes to make the Beijing Winter Olympics successful. On the other hand, it is mainly internal, which is convenient for shifting the focus.
“If the Beijing Winter Olympics are affected to some extent, or if they are not so successful, then he will say that the main reason is foreign interference. This will reduce the internal expectations for this Winter Olympics.”
Analysis: Blinken expresses reassurance to inner struggle
During the call with Wang Yi, Blinken emphasized that the position stated by Biden in the meeting between the two heads of state has not changed. The U.S. and China have both overlapping interests and differences. The U.S. side is willing to manage differences in a responsible manner, and the one-China policy has not changed.
Dong Siqi told The Epoch Times that Blinken’s response was in fact maintaining the original diplomatic tone, but the important thing was action. “In terms of substantive actions, the United States has directly used diplomatic means to boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics. At the same time, some important American Olympic sponsors are relatively low-key this time. So this is the attitude of the entire United States.”
Li Youtan believes that the U.S. strategy has undergone a major change, positioning the CCP and the U.S. to be in a competitive relationship, and this competitive relationship is a long-term competitive relationship. Therefore, the United States hopes to develop its own economy, especially to revive the chip manufacturing industry, all of which are against the competition of the CCP for a long time. In the short term, the CCP should not let the CCP invade neighboring countries.
“So my view is that the United States wants to compete for a long time, and then it is to manage and control conflicts. But the differences cannot be completely eliminated. On the one hand, Blinken is trying to appease the CCP and speak some diplomatic words, but the subsequent competition cannot stop.” Li Youtan said .
Expert: International boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics makes CCP disgraced
Under the diplomatic boycott initiated by the United States, the Beijing Winter Olympics have been overshadowed by human rights issues such as “genocide”.
Dong Siqi told The Epoch Times that, judging from the recent situation, it is impossible for the Beijing Winter Olympics to become very grand. In terms of diplomacy, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia have all declared diplomatic boycotts. In many countries, the heads of state cannot participate because of the epidemic. This time at the Beijing Winter Olympics, the CCP has no way to claim that it has achieved major diplomatic or international success.
Dong Siqi said that the CCP cannot fulfill its past commitments.
We all know that the main reason why the CCP was able to obtain the right to host the 2008 Summer Olympics in 2001 was that the CCP promised to improve human rights issues. But after so many years, the CCP has left the world with a lot of questions about human rights. In particular, issues of human rights in Xinjiang and Tibet, including Hong Kong, have attracted international attention. “So the Beijing Winter Olympics this time, because it was boycotted by major democracies in the world, its diplomatic presentation is not as bright as in the past.”
Li Youtan believes that this Winter Olympics has drawn the outside world‘s attention to this totalitarian and authoritarian society, this chilling atmosphere, and the appearance of internal repression and external expansion. Everyone rose up to boycott the Olympics, and then the formation of the International Alliance for Freedom and Democracy was connected.
“Beijing has hosted the Olympic Games twice, and few other countries have held the Olympic Games twice in the capital in such a short period of time. The CCP wants to use this method to promote national prestige, and it is very worried that this hope will be lost.”
Li Youtan said that because of the chance for Olympians every four years, we cannot bear to ask all the athletes not to participate. However, during the process of the players participating, everyone may pay attention. The CCP’s network control and monitoring of everyone may have the feelings of the athletes. In addition, there was the Peng Shuai incident before, which made people all over the world notice that the original China is such an insecure country.
“The boycott of the Olympics this time should bring disgrace to the CCP,” Li Youtan said.
Does the issue of “evacuation” of US embassy and consulate officials mean that US-China relations are difficult to move forward?
After the United States launched a “diplomatic boycott” of the Beijing Winter Olympics earlier, Reuters recently said that the United States may use China’s epidemic prevention policy as an excuse to allow some diplomats in China to leave.
For the past few days, the Chinese government and state media have been hyping up the US State Department’s internal arrangement to allow the “authorized evacuation” of US diplomats and their families in China. The Global Times, a nationalist tabloid of the Communist Party of China, accused the United States of “another explicit boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics” after the United States announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics in early December last year.
It is unclear whether any U.S. diplomats or family members have left China, or whether the U.S. State Department has approved a request to evacuate personnel from the embassy in China. Recently, the prevention and control measures of the epidemic in Beijing have been strengthened. The Fengtai District of Beijing, where the epidemic occurred, has conducted three rounds of nucleic acid testing for all staff, and some communities have entered a “quasi-closed state”.
U.S. State Department spokesman Price said on January 27 that the U.S. side urged China to revise the quarantine and testing regulations for U.S. diplomats in China. He also stressed that the operational status of the U.S. embassy and consulate in China has not changed.
The State Department previously said in an emailed statement to the media that any changes to the operational status of the U.S. mission in China will be entirely premised on the health, safety and security of our colleagues and their family members.
Regarding the controversy caused by the “authorized withdrawal” of the US embassy in China, Dong Siqi thinks this is a rather interesting phenomenon.
He said that the CCP has always maintained the so-called policy of clearing the epidemic, and the United States has a policy of coexisting with the virus. But everyone also believes that while the CCP is implementing the zero-clearing policy, in fact, there may be some interference or interference with foreigners visiting China, including his freedom of speech and actions. There are even many people who are reminded of the issue of information security.
“On the one hand, foreigners who come in from outside may think that there is an epidemic brought to China. But on the other hand, foreigners who enter China also think that they may be subject to some strict controls when entering China, which will cause a lot of It’s inconvenient. This time, the number of foreign officials coming in addition to athletes has also become very small.”
Dong Siqi believes that so far, the diplomatic relations between the United States and China have not returned to full normalization. Many issues remain unresolved, including U.S.-China trade negotiations, where China has not fulfilled past commitments. There is also the issue of the industrial chain and supply chain, and some security issues brought by the CCP, there are contradictions between the United States and China. “From the perspective of the Beijing Winter Olympics, there is no way for the diplomatic relations between the two countries to move forward.”
Regarding the dispute over the “authorized withdrawal” of the US consulate, Li Youtan said that the US is letting the CCP know that the US-China relationship is very bad now. Although some relations are maintained, we may withdraw the embassy at any time. Because the United States is worried that the CCP will use force against Taiwan at any time, it reserves this space. It is to use this kind of notice to let the CCP know that the United States cares about the CCP’s foreign expansion. “The United States expressed its position in this way. I think this is not just because of the epidemic. It is to let the CCP know that we may withdraw the embassy at any time. We will withdraw the diplomats at any time, and it may even be necessary to cut off diplomatic relations. The United States uses this kind of way to give the CCP a warning.”
Responsible editor: Gao Jing#