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On March 14, Yang Jiechi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, met with Sullivan, National Security Assistant to the US President, in Rome. This incident came quite suddenly. It was announced by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on March 13. The meeting was quiet, without any photos, only that the dialogue was held in a high-end hotel in Rome for 7 hours, and the atmosphere was not good. Most of the initial English news was quoted from CGTN (China International Television), and none of the specific talks were reported.
On the day when the news that the two would meet was announced, the Russian Satellite News Agency reported “The White House: The United States Threats China to Help Russia Under Western Sanctions and Will Bear Consequences”. Sullivan said in an interview with CNN: “We are closely monitoring the extent to which China actually provides material and economic help to Russia. We have told Beijing that we will not tolerate or allow any country to try to make up for Russia. economic damage (from Western sanctions),” he added, which would have consequences for China itself. He declined to answer the question of whether the U.S. is prepared to impose restrictions on Beijing once it tries to help Russia recoup the economic and financial damage caused by U.S. and allied sanctions.
According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian’s explanation of the meeting: “The focus of this meeting is to implement the important consensus reached in the video meeting between the heads of state of China and the United States in November last year. The two sides have been in touch since the end of last year and have been in constant communication with the meeting. , and determined the meeting time according to the schedule of the two sides. The two sides will exchange views on Sino-US relations and international and regional issues of common concern.” The Russian-Ukrainian war, which is the most concerned by the Western community at the moment, seems to be generalized by “international and regional issues of common concern” superseded, not explicitly proposed.
Judging from Zhao Lijian’s statement, it seems that the world situation is business as usual. March 13 coincides with the 50th anniversary of the establishment of full diplomatic relations between the UK and China. On the same day, Zheng Zeguang, the Chinese ambassador to the UK, published a signed article “Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Establishment of Ambassadorial Diplomatic Relations between China and the UK” in the People’s Daily. The article said: “China and the UK should maintain good communication, strengthen cooperation, and contribute to the world‘s early victory over the epidemic, improving global governance, achieving development and prosperity, and jointly creating a better future.” Similar to Zhao Lijian’s statement, the full text did not mention Russia. With the word Ukraine, it seems that UK-China relations only involve anti-epidemic and economic cooperation.
On the 50th anniversary, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not comment on this. The British government’s official website is also quiet. Five years ago, in 2017, the official website of the British government published the article “Britain Celebrates the 45th Anniversary of the Establishment of Comprehensive Diplomatic Relations with China”, which was the end of the “Golden Era” of Sino-British relations.
The world situation described by Zhao Lijian and Zheng Zeguang is very asymmetrical to the current Western atmosphere. Although the United Kingdom has left the European Union, its membership in NATO and its close relationship with the United States, coupled with the fact that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has become the top political figure in the West by a whirlwind (see “Why Zelensky Can Become Western Liberty in One Week”) Symbol?”), the Russian-Ukrainian war has become the subject of daily news on British television and on the front pages of newspapers. The British widely believe that Ukraine is for freedom and democracy. The battle is on the front line, fighting for oneself. At present, the whole country, from the people to the government, political parties to the media, is almost united in sympathy and support for Ukraine. At present, the number of Ukrainian refugees has reached 2.5 million, and some neighboring countries, including Poland, have been enthusiastically helping them, and now the pressure has spread to the United Kingdom. For refugee visas, the British government has been cautious, because the last Brexit came true because the Brexiteers successfully hit the British voters’ fear of immigrants from Syria and Eastern Europe. However, the visas issued by the British government to Ukrainian refugees this time were initially only issued to Ukrainians with family members in the United Kingdom; they were later opened, and 4,000 visas have been issued so far. At the same time, the British government has begun to encourage British people to receive and take care of Ukrainians in their own homes. On March 13, “Cum Fu” publicly stated that it would participate in this plan. A day later, it was reported that 44,000 Britons had registered for the program.
Therefore, if the domestic atmosphere in China is a mixture of various auras of the epidemic, the competition between China and the United States, and watching the Russian-Ukrainian war, then the main theme of the United Kingdom, which has stepped out of the epidemic, is to care about the progress and prospects of the Russian-Ukrainian war. As for the prospects of Sino-British relations, even Sino-US relations and Sino-European relations, they are all directly related to the current local war in Europe. In other words, the progress and outcome of the war, as well as China’s final choice of side, will most likely determine the relationship between China and the West in the future. As I wrote in “Why Zelensky Can Become a Western Symbol of Freedom in One Week?” ” wrote in the article: “Putin created the dark horse Zelensky who was stabbed out of the slant. Not only did Putin not divide the European Union and NATO, on the contrary, the dark horse vacated the sky, which enhanced the unity and common enemy of the two. “And the more important uniting factor, because of being hated, Putin overnight became a common enemy of Westerners. Before the war, I thought the British would only care about “high consciousness” issues like animals, refugees, and the climate. At the juncture of the war, the British government froze the finances of the Russian tycoons living in London, such as sanctioning the owner of Chelsea Football Club Roman Abramovich, which made the fate of Chelsea Football Club uncertain. And politely perfect capitalist democracies, because of a war with another country, will act non-capitalist. And none of the media, which usually likes to criticize the British government the most, has any objection.
I have heard a lot from domestic media and friends in the past three weeks about the view that “the United States single-handedly facilitated this war and is the beneficiary of this war.” I have never heard such a point of view in the UK, not even the media who like to criticise the UK government as a follower to the US. From the perspective of the United Kingdom, Western countries have maintained a high degree of consensus on their position on Russia. They will think that “Putin is desperate, disobeying advice, and waging war. In order to ensure democracy and freedom and security, Putin must be defeated.” Because for Britons who are used to Sunny Beach and vacations, this war will bring their memory directly. Back to WWII. They realize with dismay that Europe has fought wars for more than a thousand years in history, created and invented democracy, freedom and human rights, and used this as their domestic and foreign policy. , consciousness and behavior are still stuck in the Tsarist era (in Putin’s eyes, the Soviet Union and the former Soviet Union are like catastrophic memories). Based on my personal observations, I do not agree with the view that “the United States is deliberately promoting this war”. How can Putin be so stupid, listen to the mercy of the United States, and do things that benefit the United States and suffer for him? But I agree that the United States is the biggest beneficiary right now, and this opportunity comes from Putin’s blind confidence and impulse.
In China, perhaps the most urgent thing is to smother the virus and continue a zero-tolerance policy; but the most urgent thing in the West right now is a truce. Civilian casualties are increasing, and refugees are increasing. Russian artillery fire has hit the border between Ukraine and Poland (a NATO member), Zelensky said, “Occupying Ukraine, Russia will continue to invade.” Biden has repeatedly emphasized that “every inch of the land of NATO members will be protected.”
So far, Zelensky has been calling for a direct dialogue with Putin on the immediate truce and withdrawal of troops. It is not known whether he has requested a phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. But after the war, Xi Jinping seemed to only speak with Putin on the phone, and Biden did not speak with either Xi or Putin. Apart from these most important but never-ending diplomatic dialogues, every conceivable diplomatic means has been tried. Probably about to run for re-election, Macron is the most active. He presided over the EU meeting at the Palace of Versailles a few days ago. Yesterday, he also initiated a dialogue with Biden and Zelensky. He has communicated with Putin several times and asked for an immediate truce. The Turkish President has also begun to intervene. Mediation (Western media uniformly called this war a “Russian invasion of Ukraine”, while Turkey’s foreign English media TRT World called it “Russian attack (attack) Ukraine”), and arranged a meeting between the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine. Israel and Germany also tried hard, but to no avail.
Three weeks into the war, China has practiced a diplomatic approach of stepping on a tightrope (see “China’s Delicate Choices in the Russian-Ukrainian Conflict”). “Ministry of Foreign Affairs: One country’s security cannot be built on the basis of compromising the security of other countries” published on February 28 is China’s statement that is closest to the West’s position so far. Action, do not condemn Russia, call this a “Russian-Ukrainian conflict”, not an attack, let alone aggression; continue to oppose Western sanctions against Russia economically, and continue to maintain Sino-Russian trade. Both the Western media and the government have been in various states of confusion, wait-and-see or expecting China to intervene in their diplomatic attitude towards China in the past three weeks, with little criticism.
After waiting for three weeks, this meeting, which was set up last year, created the first high-level meeting opportunity between China and the United States after the Russian-Ukrainian war. Regarding the meeting between Yang Jiechi and Sullivan in Rome yesterday, Beijing, the United States and Russia reported very different reports.
In the report of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Russia is not mentioned, and Ukraine is only mentioned in the last sentence. See the report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China “Yang Jiechi Holds Meeting with US President’s National Security Adviser Sullivan”.
The relevant report on the official White House website is short: “National Security Advisor Jack Sullivan met with Yang Jiechi, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission, in Rome, Italy today. Their meeting was between President Biden and President Xi on November 15, 2021. Follow-up to the virtual meeting. Mr. Sullivan raised a range of issues in the U.S.-China relationship and had a lot of discussion about Russia’s war in Ukraine. They also emphasized the importance of maintaining open lines of communication between the U.S. and China.”
The Russian Satellite News Agency reported this: “According to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yang Jiechi pointed out that the situation in Ukraine has reached this stage, which China does not want to see. China has always advocated respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries and abide by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. The Chinese side is committed to promoting peace talks. The international community should jointly support the Russia-Ukraine peace talks to achieve substantive results as soon as possible, and promote the cooling of the situation as soon as possible. All parties should exercise maximum restraint, protect civilians, and prevent a large-scale humanitarian crisis. Ukraine has provided emergency humanitarian assistance and will continue to make its own efforts to this end. Yang Jiechi said: ‘We should straighten out the historical latitude and longitude of the Ukraine issue and its origins, trace its origins, and respond to the legitimate concerns of all parties. Taking a long-term perspective, we should actively advocate common, comprehensive and cooperation. , a sustainable security concept, encourages all parties concerned to carry out equal dialogue, and seeks to build a balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism in accordance with the principle of indivisibility of security, so as to maintain peace in Europe and the world.’”
The strange thing is that on the same day of the Rome Conference, that is, on March 14, the Russian Satellite News Agency also published “The Eurasian Economic Union and China will formulate an independent international monetary and financial system plan.” “The Eurasian Economic Union and China will formulate a plan for an independent international monetary and financial system, the decision was made after a video conference on the cooperation between the European Economic Community and China,” the report said.
Sergei Graziyev, Minister of Integration and Macroeconomics of the Eurasian Economic Commission, stressed that China is the first country in the world to enter the stage of national economic recovery.
“Considering the common challenges and risks posed by the slowdown of the global economy and the restrictive measures taken against the Eurasian Economic Union countries and China, our countries should, at the level of regular expert dialogue and in the Practical cooperation has been strengthened in joint measures and projects.”
The official website of the Eurasian Economic Commission stated that after the discussion, it was decided to formulate an independent plan for the international monetary and financial system. It is estimated that the system will be based on a new international currency that will be settled as participating countries’ local currencies and commodity price indices. The first draft will be submitted for discussion at the end of March.
We have not seen any official Chinese reports on the matter, nor have we denied it. Just when I was doubting the authenticity of this news, on March 15, I noticed an article published by Xinhua News Agency, “Destroy the “U.S. Financial Model Superstition”! China’s finance has to go its own way” article, I did not find this article on the Xinhua News Agency website. Google search for the title, you can still see that Sina Finance has published this article. After clicking on it, you will find that the article has been deleted. However, Sina Finance published “The Financial Associated Press: “Destroying the Superstition of the U.S. Financial Model” is only an excerpt of the author’s old article in 2020 without excessive interpretation.” A media outlet said: Xinhua News Agency published an opinion article – “Destroy the “U.S. Financial Model Superstition”! China’s Finance Has to Go Its Own Way”, this view has attracted widespread attention in the market. A reporter from Cailian News noticed that the author of the article was the former Shenzhen Zhang Yundong, director of the Securities Regulatory Bureau, this article was published in 2020 after his retirement. The original text is “Beware of the Financialization of China’s Economy in the Post-epidemic Era”, which has no signal significance. This article was included in his personal book “Origin and Original Heart” last year.”
When there are many speculations about the direction of the Chinese team, it is deliberately clarified that “no signal meaning” means that there is no silver 300 taels here.
So far, China’s diplomatic options are still unclear. Russia seems to be reporting that “the United States oppresses China’s position, and China has already intended to build a new monetary and financial system with us.” For Russia, this is of course the most beautiful ending. It really works with China to create a new order that confronts the United States. .
The White House report did not mention the Russian news agency’s statement that “the United States threatens that China will bear the consequences of helping Russia under Western sanctions”, which seems to be out of fear of pushing China toward Russia.
As for China, which both sides are fighting for, one is its own rival, the United States, and the other is its brother Russia, who is fighting against the United States side by side. Going to the U.S. side to deal with its own backing is equivalent to helping the United States defeat its old rivals; going to Russia’s side is to directly draw a clear line with Western countries, which will seriously affect the plan to “grow bigger and stronger through global trade”. And on March 15, Xinhua News Agency, “Destroy the “U.S. Financial Model Superstition”! The brief appearance, and then deletion, of “China’s Finance Going Its Own Way” seems to indicate that some quarters in China are engaged in a heated debate about how to take sides. I will continue to closely observe whether China will start to adjust its policies, how and to which direction.
(Note: The author is a British sociologist. This article only represents the author’s personal views. The editor-in-charge email [email protected])