Chinese state media was very enthusiastic about the confrontation between U.S. and Chinese diplomatic representatives in Alaska this weekend, churning out a blizzard of editorials that congratulated Politburo member Yang Jiechi and other members of the Chinese team for humiliating U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
China’s state-run Global Times even tossed a bouquet on Sunday to the Chinese team’s translator, Zhang Jing, who became an overnight sensation on China’s tightly-controlled social media for “fully showing the elegant demeanor of China’s diplomats in the new era.”
“Zhang Jing helped convey China’s voice to the world through her specialty; and compared to the US translator, she performed far better. She also showed ‘her power’ of Chinese women,” said one post on Weibo, China’s replacement for the banned Twitter microblogging platform.
Most of the adulation quoted by the Global Times praised Zhang as a hero of Chinese feminism and a role model for young women, although the South China Morning Post (SCMP) noted a sizable portion of her fan club seems very taken with her appearance, lauding her as “China’s Most Beautiful Interpreter” and gazing at length upon still photos taken while she was translating Yang Jiechi’s lengthy tirade in Alaska.
Zhang’s more eloquent admirers praised her for staying cool during Yang’s heated performance and swiftly translating his remarks into English, a daunting task that was joked about onstage in Alaska.
“Chinese netizens” were beside themselves with glee over the “sharp counterattack by the Chinese delegation” in Alaska against “the U.S. side’s arrogance and aggression,” according to another Global Times article over the weekend.
“In the face the U.S. provocation at the talks, the hard-hitting remarks of the Chinese delegation – such as ‘the U.S. side is not qualified to speak to China from a position of strength’ – excited Chinese netizens on Friday, many of whom said they were very proud to see their motherland and its diplomats becoming more powerful and dauntless day by day,” the Chinese Communist paper wrote.
Chinese commentators described the Alaska ambush as a beatdown that should earn Beijing some respect from the arrogant Americans, akin to China’s intervention in the Korean War in the 1950s.
“It’s good to see our diplomats ‘warn’ the U.S. politicians. I truly feel the days when we were poor and weak are gone forever,” a Chinese Internet user wrote.
While China’s representatives were hailed as conquering heroes, the Biden team was dragged on Chinese social media for rudeness and incompetence, including jeers for supposedly making their Chinese guests eat lousy instant noodles for lunch before talks began.
The Global Times editorialized that Alaska would set the tone for a “candid, constructive, and helpful” dialogue between China and the Biden administration, now that the “tit-for-tat war of words” is behind them.
“Especially when the Biden administration has been correcting the deeds of its predecessor, such as the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement that led to severe consequences, China and the US will have much common ground on this aspect,” ventured Lu Xiang, research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.
Lu thought the Chinese delegation did a good job of reminding the U.S. it has become more isolated in the world, so the American strategy of “rendering a unified stance in the so-called Indo-pacific to curb China” with allies such as Japan and South Korea is clearly a “joke.”
The Global Times thought Biden should act quickly to rebuild China’s trust by “restarting personnel exchanges that had been severely jeopardized by the Trump administration by ordering the shutdown of a Chinese consulate in the U.S., obstructing normal work of the Chinese media outlets in the U.S., imposing travel bans on the Communist Party of China (CPC) members and so on.”
On Saturday, the Global Times described the talks in Alaska as “testy but helpful” and a successful opportunity to “disperse lingering tensions and reset fraught relations between Washington and Beijing.”
“The dialogue, if held at agreed intervals in the coming months, could be deemed as a sign that the two economic and political heavyweights could at least avoid further deterioration in their ties after four years of damage caused by Donald Trump administration, both in economy and in bilateral relations,” the editorial judged.
“It is also useful for the two countries’ senior officials to treat each other as equals and with respect. Just like Chinese top diplomat Yang Jiechi stated in Alaska that the US should not talk to China or any other country in a ‘condescending and domineering manner,’ the Global Times added, restating the talking point that Yang won global respect by taking the arrogant Biden team down a few pegs:
During the opening remarks of the heated dialogue in Alaska, US secretary of state Antony Blinken wanted to lecture China on American-style democracy and human rights, and he got a direct rebuttal from his Chinese counterpart.
Yang said that China doesn’t think “the overwhelming majority of countries in the world recognize the universal values advocated by the US, or that the opinion of the US represents international public opinion.” He added that “the rules made by a small number of people in the West should not serve as the basis for the international order.” In addition, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that now it is time for the US government to give up interfering in China’s internal affairs.
Blinken and US national security advisor Jake Sullivan tried to play up US’ position by listing how many allies the US has, but they were shocked by their Chinese counterparts’ frank narrative. The wrangling and blunt rebuttal, overwhelmingly supported by ordinary Chinese people at home, is an indication to the world that China won’t be coerced by the US any more.
The editorial lamented that Biden is continuing too many of Trump’s “hardline policies,” from sanctions against Chinese officials to bans on Chinese electronics that pose immense security risks, but hoped Biden would see the wisdom of dropping these ineffectual tactics and making his peace with the growing might of the Communist tyranny.
“With or without the US, China is poised to grow. And the genuine economic and trade partners of China will continue to benefit from the country’s huge dynamic market. If the politicians in Washington continue to engage in the blame game, demonizing and smearing China on the world stage, China will just ignore them, leaving them bickering and waning in strength,” the Global Times lectured.
The first step the Chinese seem eager for Biden to take would be bilateral trade talks aimed at lifting Trump’s sanctions and tariffs, permanently scuttling any notion of “decoupling” from China in the wake of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.
The Global Times quoted Chinese academics who lightly implied China might respond to such a favorable gesture by lowering its own high tariffs, and some American analysts and business leaders who eagerly anticipated a stronger U.S.-China trade relationship.
For example, FedEx CEO Frederick W. Smith sent a “note” to the Global Times urging China and the United States to “seek areas for cooperation that will build a solid foundation for a long-term relationship and mutual prosperity,” citing “global health, collaborating on e-commerce, and combating climate challenges” as “compelling areas of potential cooperation.”
The combined narrative of these Chinese state media editorials is that the American Century decisively ended in Alaska, with Yang Jiechi’s fiery assertion that America lacks the moral stature to criticize China’s human rights abuses – according to the rhetoric of President Joe Biden and his party, which Yang threw right back in their faces – and no longer possesses either the diplomatic influence or economic power to influence Beijing’s behavior, even if fading America could win the moral argument.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.