This week, Joe Biden coordinated his promise to work more closely with allies to put China under pressure with U.S. partners to impose sanctions on alleged human rights violations in Xinjiang.
Beijing’s response: Hit the allies as hard as possible.
China wasted no time Monday night, immediate retaliation sanctions against European Union officials during the call of the bloc’s ambassador to China. This hit includes politicians in a range of countries, one of the most important EU bodies formulating foreign policy and Europe’s largest research institute focused on China.
“It was very unfortunate that they went so deep into their toolbox,” said Joerg Wuttke, the Beijing-based president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China and a board member of the Mercator Institute of China Studies, one of the sanctioned entities , said. Wuttke noted that a major EU-China investment agreement reached in December is likely to be brought to the forefront, saying China appears to be treating its allies more harshly than the US.
“Size is important,” he said. “They are more cautious about the US and follow fully to Canada, Australia and the European Union.”
China’s assertive response to the heels of a rare public outcry from U.S. officials in Alaska last week shows that President Xi Jinping’s government is using international criticism over what it calls ‘internal issues’ of Xinjiang and Hong Kong to Taiwan. Beijing’s position runs the risk of drawing clearer lines between geopolitical blocs than what took place under Donald Trump, whose “America First” policies led to a damaging trade war, but also that Beijing could abandon traditional American allies feeling alienate.
‘Just the beginning’
“This can only be the beginning,” said Bates Gill, a professor of Asia-Pacific security studies at Macquarie University in Australia.
“Both sides, China on the one hand, and other advanced, typically liberal democracies on the other, will test the other to see how much pain they can endure,” he added. “There is a lot more decoupling that can happen, and we should expect that, especially in areas of high-tech trading, investing and access to capital markets.”
US, British and EU sanctions China over human rights abuses
China this week reached out to two longtime friends, Russia and North Korea, both of whom have also been receiving U.S. sanctions in recent years. On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on how to counter the hegemony of the US dollar by promoting the yuan and ruble.
‘Lubricate China’
“A few Western countries have offered a show to smear China, but they should know that the days when they could interfere in China’s domestic affairs by fabricating lies are long gone,” Wang said in the southern Chinese province. Guangxi said.
The setback continued on Tuesday afternoon during the Foreign Ministry’s briefing in Beijing, where spokesman Hua Chunying declared Xinjiang a “successful human rights story” while unleashing an extraordinarily broad attack on the EU, Canada and the US, which all introduced new sanctions. about China this week. On Monday, diplomats from more than 20 countries also gathered outside a court in Beijing where former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig was tried on spy charges.
China confronted by Show of Western Unity at Canadian Trial
Hua’s critique spans centuries and extends the spectrum from their role in the slave trade, imperialism and Nazism to the assassination of George Floyd and alleged storage of coronavirus vaccines. She dismissed criticism of countries with ‘small populations’ and mocked their coalition as ‘pseudo-multilateralism’.
“China is far from the old China of 120 years ago today,” Hua said in an apparent reference to the agreement that forced imperial powers to sign China after the Boxer Rebellion. ‘The US, the UK and other countries should not dream of surrendering to China by exerting pressure. I’m afraid they do not have the ability to strangle or suffocate China. ”
Beijing’s leading diplomats set the tone for the latest rhetoric during the Alaska meetings with the US, when Politburo member Yang Jiechi made extensive remarks about America’s human rights record and questioned whether it represented international public opinion. Subsequently, Chinese propaganda targeted sales of T-shirts and cell phone cases with phrases used during the talks, including “Stop interfering in China’s domestic affairs” and “The US does not have the qualification to go on.” a condescending way of talking to us. ”
China’s tightly controlled social media on Tuesday was filled with nationalist voices supporting the Chinese government’s retaliatory sanctions. Many have the official line that Western countries do not reflect human rights violations, reflect and argue in support of government policy in Xinjiang – where the United Nations estimates more than 1 million, mostly ethnic Uighurs, in internment camps.
Some have expressed concern about the impact on China’s ties with Europe, in particular the fate of the comprehensive investment agreement with the EU. “Is there a new Cold War coming?” read one Weibo post that received more than 6,000 likes. “Being besieged is not in China’s favor.”
China is likely to continue issuing reciprocal sanctions and criticism of coordinated statements, even if it breaks the EU investment agreement, says Natasha Kassam, a former Australian diplomat who worked on human rights issues in China and is now director of the brainstorming session. of the Lowy Institute. public opinion and foreign policy program.
“The logic in China, Xi Jinping, prevents a reconsideration of counterproductive policies,” she said. “And Chinese officials prioritize a tone of power over global public opinion.”
– With the help of Iain Marlow, Philip Glamann, Colum Murphy and Jing Li