China, U.S. 'Repairing Ties' Amid Serious Disputes?

Beijing and Washington seem to be repairing security relationships, James Palmer reported for Foreign Policy, citing the meeting of US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart, Wei Fenghe, this week in Siem Reap, Cambodia, after US President Joe Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.

Photo Insert: President Joe Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.

This doesn’t seem like a full-fledged détente, with neither side making public concessions, but instead a gradual return to the state of communications before US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August and Xi raised hell.

It’s possible that the Chinese leadership has some hope that relations can be steadied with the US to avoid making things worse, Palmer added.

US-bashing is often an easy solution for Beijing when things are going wrong, and a year of broken contacts and bitter propaganda have eroded its reading of Washington but strengthened Xi’s hold on Chinese nationalists, Xi’s propaganda market.

Xi also squabbled with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over leaks to the Canadian press, saying “everything we’ve discussed has been leaked to the papers, and that is not appropriate.”

Trudeau’s response was that Canada is an open society in which events can’t be hidden from the press.

Chinese media always wants to show that Xi controls events and described Biden as “listening attentively” and “bowing his head” to Xi as they chatted.

It is certainly not a promising sign for any end to so-called “wolf warrior” diplomacy, Palmer argued and said nothing about Xi’s plea for Biden to allow advanced US-designed and fabricated chips to be allowed to enter China.

This much was made evident by Xi, who vowed to collaborate with Biden in dismantling trade barriers and high tariff walls.

WEEKLY FEATURE : MVP Group Keeps Lights On During Pandemic