Sino-American Valentines

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping visited the United States and met with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington on February 14, Valentine’s Day. The scheduling was apparently not a coincidence.

In 1950, Mao Zedong met with Josef Stalin on a visit to Moscow. The Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance was concluded on Valentine’s Day. It is said that the Chinese and Soviet Communist parties were flaunting their vow of love to the U.S.

In 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon made a shocking visit to Beijing and normalized Sino-American relations. The day he surprised the world was February 21, one week after Valentine’s Day. Xi’s U.S. visit was clearly intended to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Nixon’s visit to China.

Relations between the U.S. and China are not good. China, which has become the world’s second-largest economy, is rapidly building up its military and political strength, which is angering the U.S. In the U.S. Congress, complaints are raging that China is to blame for American unemployment. Even President Obama called out China as an unfair trading country in his State of the Union address. He also announced a defense strategy that would amass American forces in the Pacific Ocean to create an encircling net around China.

However, that is precisely why the U.S. took such great care to give Xi a warm welcome. U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden accompanied Xi in Washington and California.

Meanwhile, China included a visit to a pig farm in rural Iowa in the itinerary for Xi’s U.S. visit. Xi revisited the farm where he did a homestay when he was 32, during his time as a Communist party official in a provincial Chinese town. Peddling the image of “an old friend of America,” he is trying to completely change his image as a conservative “Crown Prince” (a descendant of early Chinese revolutionaries) who takes a hard line with the U.S.

Xi is not just the Chinese Vice President. He will become the General Secretary of the Communist Party this fall, and President of China the following spring. He will be partners with President Obama (assuming he wins reelection this fall) in future Sino-American relations. The hospitality shown to Xi on this visit is Valentine diplomacy, which has an eye to this future partnership.

Diplomatic protocol is like obligatory-gift chocolate, which women give to all of the men in their lives on Valentine’s Day in Japan. However, exchanging this chocolate skillfully is a diplomat’s wily art. The Japanese likely remember Xi for what happened in December 2009, when the scheduling of his meeting with Emperor Akihito stirred up big trouble.

That was during the administration of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, when Xi had already been tapped as the next President of China. His visit with the Emperor was also planned with an eye to future Sino-Japanese relations, but it was scheduled very suddenly. The Imperial Household Agency sparked a dispute with the Prime Minister’s office when they denied the request for the meeting by hiding behind a rule stating that such requests must be made in writing one month in advance. This behind-the-scenes situation was exposed, and the media clamored, “Don’t cater to China.” The meeting ultimately took place, but it left a bad taste in everyone’s mouths. Compared to such Sino-Japanese relations, Sino-American relations are handled much more adroitly.