How Beijing can reduce US-China tensions ahead of the Biden presidency
US President Donald Trump may remain defiant in the lame-duck period of his presidency, but he seems more interested in playing golf than attending to international affairs, as the latest major international meetings in the past two weeks have shown.
By contrast, Chinese President Xi Jinping has stolen the show at the annual Apec (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) meetings of business executives and heads of state, and the G20 Leaders' Summit.
At those meetings, via video links, Xi reaffirmed China's commitment to embrace the world with open arms and create greater global recovery opportunities.
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He called for enhanced policy communication and coordination to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, proposed a global QR code system to enable cross-border movement, and urged more efforts to restore global industrial and supply chains while cutting tariffs and reducing barriers.
"Openness enables a country to move forward, while seclusion holds it back," Xinhua quoted him as telling the Apec meeting of business leaders.
Chinese state media has wasted no time in hailing Xi as a world champion on how to get to the right path and "delineate ways to tackle the most pressing challenges facing humanity".
While the praise may be fulsome and Xi's promise of China's further opening up an old familiar strain, his flurry of diplomatic activities is much more than lip service, as cynics tend to believe.
Instead, they signal Beijing's intention to put down markers for more far-reaching policy initiatives to come as the Chinese leadership braces for the presidency of Joe Biden by taking pre-emptive moves to counteract his China policies.
Nearly three weeks after the US presidential election was called for Biden, Xi publicly congratulated him on Wednesday, expressing hope that Beijing and Washington could focus on cooperation and manage and control their differences.
Until then, Xi had refrained from personally wishing Biden well, partly for fear of provoking Trump and aggravating already troubled bilateral relations. Xi's message came after the Trump administration on Monday approved the beginning of the formal transition process, even though he remains defiant and has still refused to concede.
On Tuesday, Biden formally unveiled his foreign policy and national team and declared "America is back". Key members of his team, including Anthony Blinken as secretary of state, Jake Sullivan as national security adviser, and John Kerry as special envoy for climate, are mostly from the Barack Obama administration.
Chinese analysts and officials believe that even though Biden will maintain an overall tough stance against Beijing, his China policies will take on a traditional, professional and measured approach, as opposed to Trump's erratic and impulsive style.
Biden has made it very clear that one of his top priorities will be to form a united front with US allies around the world to increase the pressure on China.
As his administration is set to reimagine American political and economic leadership in the Asia-Pacific, Xi has apparently decided to seize the upper hand by announcing that China "will favourably consider joining" the renegotiated version of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which was originally led by the Obama administration and aimed at excluding China.
US President Donald Trump pulled out of the TPP in 2017. Photo: The New York Times/Bloomberg alt=US President Donald Trump pulled out of the TPP in 2017. Photo: The New York Times/Bloomberg
Trump pulled out of the TPP in 2017, and the remaining 11 countries signed the renegotiated version - called the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) - a year later.
Xi's offer to join the CPTPP came after China joined 14 other countries - including Japan, South Korea, and the Southeast Asian nations - to sign the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) this month, creating one of the world's largest free-trade zones and covering a market of 2.2 billion people.
As the US is not party to either of the two agreements, and Biden is non-committal on whether the US will join the CPTPP, this has cemented China's standing as the dominant economic power in the region and given Beijing more leverage to counteract Washington's influence.
As the CPTPP requires higher standards on intellectual property rights, labour rights, and state-owned enterprise reforms, China's declared intention to join that agreement signals its determination to adopt more reforms and further open up.
To counteract Biden's plan on forming a united front with its Western allies against China, Beijing is also aggressively pursuing free-trade talks with the European Union.
On Tuesday, Xi told German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a phone call that Beijing would step up efforts to conclude talks on the landmark bilateral investment treaty with Europe by the end of this year.
The treaty, seven years in the making, also requires higher standards on the protection of labour rights and the environment as well as procedural fairness and due process, which would give European businesses greater market access in China.
All those efforts will certainly be welcomed by foreign investors and businesses, as those agreements would help to create a fair and open environment for doing business, and strengthen China's standing as a global champion of trade and investment.
US President-elect Joe Biden has made it clear one of his top priorities would be to form a united front with allies to increase pressure on China. Photo: AP alt=US President-elect Joe Biden has made it clear one of his top priorities would be to form a united front with allies to increase pressure on China. Photo: AP
With Biden's presidency just weeks away, Beijing can certainly do more to reduce tensions not only with Washington but also with its other major trading partners in the West as it faces the worst external environment in decades.
For one, Beijing needs to further dial down its "Wolf Warrior" diplomacy, which has caused disquiet around the world and contributed to a sharp fall in public opinion of China.
While Beijing has every right to rebut what it sees biased and baseless accusations against China, diplomats and state media should also refrain from being seen as bullying or threatening foreign officials or governments that disagree with China's policies on human rights or other practices.
China may aggressively use its economic influence to advance its agenda, but it must accept different views about its rise and impact on the rest of the world. It must be more disciplined in responding to the backlash from the West, instead of the current practice of being unable to tolerate any criticism.
Secondly, China should take the initiative to help resolve the high-profile, controversial case involving Canada's detention of Meng Wanzhou at the behest of the US, and China's subsequent detention of two Canadians, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, which has strained relations between Beijing and Ottawa.
Meng is the chief financial officer of China's technology giant Huawei Technologies and daughter of the company's founder Ren Zhengfei. Canadian authorities have accused Meng of financial fraud, while China accused the two Canadians of spying.
Let's face it. Contrary to claims by the three countries, the arrests of Meng and the two Canadians are politically motivated. Shortly after Meng's arrest almost two years ago, Trump suggested he might intervene in Meng's case if Beijing could make more trade concessions. The arrests of Spavor and Kovrig are widely seen as China's retaliation.
Beijing can gain an upper hand by putting the two Canadians on trial and having them deported back to Canada.
Thirdly, China can greatly improve the negative foreign perception of its human rights policies by further opening up Xinjiang to foreign visitors and reporters.
Over the past two years, Washington and other Western capitals have been increasingly vocal about the treatment of Uygur Muslims in Xinjiang, accusing the local authorities of arbitrarily detaining them in camps and prisons.
Beijing has strongly denied the accusations and said some Uygurs were at vocational training centres for upgrading job skills and undertaking deradicalisation.
In December last year, local officials said all those in the training centres had "graduated" and returned to their normal lives. But allegations of indoctrination and torture still persist, which has led some human rights activists to describe the treatment of Uygurs as a "genocide".
These discussions in the overseas media have greatly imperilled China's standing and reputation. If Beijing believes it has nothing to hide, it should open up Xinjiang to more scrutiny.
Fourthly, China should present a clear Covid-19 vaccine plan not only for itself but also for other developing countries, following significant progress from US pharmaceutical firms Pfizer and Moderna, which have each reported that their vaccines are about 95 per cent effective in trials.
Since these reports, China, which is widely considered among the world's front-runners to produce a vaccine, has been muted about its own efforts.
This may be because the Chinese vaccine makers have not completed the crucial phase III trials needed to establish safety and efficacy, or because their vaccines may not have reached the efficacy level of the American products.
However, that has not prevented Sinopharm from applying for a licence to bring its vaccines to the market soon, state media reported on Wednesday.
Earlier this month, Chinese media reported that nearly 1 million people had taken vaccines for emergency use and no serious adverse reaction had been reported, implying high efficacy. But a lack of transparency and concrete trial data have caused confusion and concerns at home and abroad.
As Xi promised that China's vaccines would be a "global public good", expectations are growing that low-income countries would have a better chance of getting their hands on Chinese vaccines given the country's vast production capacity.
China must get it right.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
