“Valentine Gifts” for Xi Jinping

The purpose of Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States, from Feb. 13-17, was to set the tone of Sino-U.S. relations in the decade ahead – no more or less. After all, Xi Jinping is in a cohort of fifth-generation Chinese politicians and is the main contender for the presidency. It appears that in late 2012 and early 2013, he will gradually replace the current head of China Hu Jintao, first as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, and later as chairman of the PRC. If the transfer of power to the next generation will be held in Beijing as planned (its representatives are already trying to decide on the tone of relations with the United States), it is worth noting that organizers of the visit picked the right moment when they appointed the date of Feb. 14 for the U.S. and China leaders’ major talks. It was far from love, but at least the leaders got to know each other and exchanged a few important “heartfelt” messages.

Who is Mr. Xi?

The U.S. used the visit to decide on what approach they want to take in building a relationship with the future Chinese leader. It took the U.S. politicians a few years to answer the question: Who is Hu? That is, what kind of leader is the current leader Hu Jintao? The truth is that in recent years, the current Chinese leader gave America a lot of surprises. Washington clearly does not want to repeat the same mistakes in forging a relationship with the future Chinese leader.

On the other hand, the U.S. simply had no idea where Hu Jintao would lead China, and often could not foresee the next steps taken in Beijing. Today, Americans seem to be making a great mistake once again if they think that the purpose of the next generation of Chinese leadership is just to turn China into a global hegemon to challenge the United States. In trying to prevent this turn of events, Washington has become hostage to the old concept of containment of China, which, as history has shown, has little chance of success. Today, forty years after the establishment of U.S. relations with China under Nixon, Washington clearly lacks understanding of how to turn China into a global ally.

At first glance, Xi is a convenient person to deal with. The U.S. takes into account that he comes from a family of a well-known Chinese party leader with rather liberal political views, who is one of the pioneers of China’s reform. Xi’s father, Xi Chzhunsyun, was a veteran party member who, during Mao’s rule, was promoted to deputy prime minister, but during the Cultural Revolution in 1969, fell into disgrace and was sent to a remote province of Shaanxi to be an ordinary worker. For several years, Xi’s family literally lived in a cave among peasants farmers. The dossier of American diplomats on Xi, which was made public by WikiLeaks , says that he is a man not without ambition, but in principle “our kind of guy” (Original quote could not be found) – he loves Hollywood war movies, plays tennis, and is not a bad dancer. He is one of the few Chinese leaders who is not a stranger to America. In the mid-80s, he lived in Iowa where he studied advanced farming techniques, and for a little while, lived with a family of ordinary farmers. Xi’s daughter is now studying at Harvard University, however, she enrolled there under an assumed name. His family has chosen Canada and Hong Kong as their places of residence, and his first wife lives in Great Britain. Xi Jinping’s current wife, Peng Liyuan, is a known singer in China and a soloist of the Chinese Army with the rank of general. She can often be seen on China’s central television performing both patriotic songs and folk songs.

Xi does not at all seem like a typical Chinese government official. He is an individual, a party aristocrat (the Western press, however, awarded him the label of “princeling”), while most of the current Chinese leaders are just party functionaries. But it would be a mistake to assume that Xi is not committed to the CPC with all his heart. Suffice to recall the story of how he, the son of the disgraced official, applied for admission to the party nine times, and was refused each time. He became a communist only in 1974. Today as the head of the Party School at the CPC Central Committee, he largely determines the ideology of the party and has positioned himself as an exemplary communist.

Taking all of this into account, U.S. politicians, on the one hand, had an easy time negotiating with Xi Jinping, but at the same time it was a very difficult process. It was easy, because he understands the U.S. position like nobody else. But the complexity of this dialogue came from that fact that Xi knew in advance that Obama could not avoid talking about the issue of human rights in China. Joe Biden could not resist reminding Xi of the need to open certain sectors of the Chinese market for U.S. companies and to continue the policy of strengthening the yuan, as well as the need to prosecute violators of intellectual property rights. Hillary Clinton also talked about the disagreement regarding China’s position on the issue of sanctions against Syria and Iran. Xi Jinping quietly listened to the American side, but immediately made it clear that he did not come to Washington to address all these issues. He understood that the Americans were playing their game, and besides this, were trying to use his visit for domestic political gains. China could become a hot topic in the presidential race this year, and it is important for the U.S. administration to show commitment to Barack Obama’s voters to eliminate imbalances in U.S. relations with the Middle Kingdom.

This should serve as the new foreign policy doctrine of the United States, “return to Asia,” which the U.S. President formulated at the end of last year (ZN.UA № 47, December 23, 2011), and which, in January of this year, he called the cornerstone of the country’s defense strategy in the coming years. At the same time, no one in Washington says straight out that the new policy is aimed at curbing the growing influence of China, but everyone understands this to be the concept.

From China with Love…

Xi played his own game, saying that he had come to talk about more important issues – the pragmatic cooperation and understanding between China and the United States. His main message to America went unnoticed in the general background, but clearly upset the receiving end. He asked his partners about what had been done to follow through on the consensus reached by President Hu Jintao and Barack Obama during the Chinese leader’s visit to the U.S. in January of last year. Back then, the leaders agreed to lay the foundation of relations on “mutual respect and mutual benefit” (ZN.UA number 1, January 14, 2011). He did not receive an answer to this question, but it was obvious that for this visitor from Beijing, it was a very important opportunity to voice a position in Washington. If the U.S. refuses to follow earlier agreements, they will have to renegotiate with Beijing in different conditions and, apparently, with a new Chinese leader. Chinese diplomats have made it clear that under changed conditions they don’t only have the growing power of China in mind. Today, the Chinese Foreign Ministry is under the pressure of public opinion in regard to Chinese relations with the United States, which is becoming a more polarized and controversial issue. Washington should consider this. Xi also made it clear that to have a real “return to Asia,” the White House will have to consider China’s interests – regional and global. In this case, both countries would cooperate even more actively.

Xi Jinping has already demonstrated his understanding of “pragmatic cooperation” with the United States by visiting Iowa and Los Angeles. During a visit to the agricultural state, he again expressed interest in farming technologies and even rode around on a tractor at the same farm that he had visited 27 years ago. Noting that China is a major consumer of American agricultural products, China’s vice president said his country would sign a contract to purchase 11 million tons of soybeans from Iowa in excess of $6 billion.

And when he went to Los Angeles (which brings in 40 percent of Chinese exports), Xi Jinping brought with him five hundred Chinese businessmen to attend a business forum, which was also attended by representatives of business circles from all of the U.S. states. The Chinese delegation used this platform to demonstrate to the American side that the U.S. market today is largely closed to the arrival of Chinese companies, which have both the desire and, more importantly, financial resources for investment in the U.S. economy. It is said that members of the Chinese delegation particularly alerted the U.S. authorities to the fact that Chinese investment in economies such as Canada are growing in the past three years, despite the crisis, while China’s investment in the U.S. economy during the same period has declined.

The finale of the Chinese vice president’s visit to the United States was full of romance and drive. He attended a basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns noting that when his work schedule allows it, he also watches NBA games. And, of course, being in California, Xi could not ignore Hollywood. He gave American film producers a great gift by promising to increase the entry of their products into the Chinese film market, which, according to experts in the film industry in 2011 grew to $2 billion. Of course, in exchange for this, China is striving to gain access to Hollywood. Behind the scenes of the visit, contracts were signed allowing Chinese state-owned media companies to access advanced film production technologies and marketing technologies. Beijing is interested in promoting its product by the same methods and channels that the U.S. uses to spread its ideological influence. It is increasingly being referred to as “the soft power” of cultural diplomacy. China still has a lot to learn in this area, but the global success of the cartoon “Kung Fu Panda” and other movies with Chinese themes indicate that Beijing is on the right track here.

Packing his luggage for the trip back, which goes through Ireland and Turkey, Xi Jinping was apparently quite satisfied with the visit. He proved himself a wise politician, able to lead his country into a new era, but at the same time, he remained a mystery, never quiet revealing where, in fact, he is going to lead the Chinese nation.