Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, speaks during a routine press conference where he congratulated US president-elect Joe Biden at the foreign ministry in Beijing on 13 November 2020. China on Friday became one of the last major countries to congratulate Joe Biden on being elected US president. AP/Liu Zheng
By Joe McDonald | AP
BEIJING, China, 13 November 2020
China on Friday became one of the last major countries to congratulate US President-elect Joe Biden, who is expected to make few changes to US policy in conflicts with Beijing over trade, technology and security.
China, along with Russia, avoided joining the throng that congratulated Biden last weekend after he and vice presidential running mate Kamala Harris secured enough Electoral College votes to unseat President Donald Trump.
“We respect the choice of the American people,” said a foreign ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin. “We congratulate Mr Biden and Ms Harris.”
Wang gave no reason for the delay but said, “the result will be confirmed according to US laws and procedures.”
US-Chinese relations have plunged to their lowest level in decades amid a tariff war over Beijing’s technology ambitions and trade surplus, accusations of spying and tension over human rights, the coronavirus pandemic, Hong Kong and control of the South China Sea.
Trump labelled China a security threat and imposed export curbs and other sanctions on Chinese companies. On Thursday, he stepped up those sanctions by issuing an order that bars Americans from investing in securities issued by companies US officials say are owned or controlled by the Chinese military.
Forecasters had said even if lost his re-election bid, Trump was likely to try to increase pressure on Beijing before he leaves office on 20 January.
Political analysts expect Biden to try to resume cooperation with Beijing on climate change, North Korea, Iran and the coronavirus. And they say Biden might pursue a more traditional, predictable policy toward China.
However, economists and political analysts expect few big changes due to widespread frustration with Beijing’s trade and human rights record and accusations of spying and technology theft.
“A tough stance on China has broad support across the US political spectrum,” Louis Kuijs of Oxford Economics said in a report this week. “Biden’s own pronouncements and policy programme suggest he will continue to try to maintain the US technological lead and to attract manufacturing activity.”
Some forecasters suggest the change from Trump, who rejected multilateral alliances, to Biden might increase pressure on China if Washington forms a coalition with other developed countries to push for policy changes.
China has tried to recruit Germany, France, South Korea and other governments as allies against Washington but all have refused. They criticized Trump’s trade tactics of surprise tariff hikes, which also were used against allies, but echo US complaints that China is violating its free-trade commitments.
Some Chinese trade experts have suggested Beijing might try to renegotiate the “Phase 1” agreement signed in January as a first step toward ending the trade war. It calls for China to increase purchases of US goods in exchange for postponing further tariff hikes. But that came before the coronavirus derailed global trade, leaving China behind on meeting its commitments.
Renegotiation might fit a “more strategic, longer-term orientation” expected from a Biden administration, but he “cannot be seen to be ‘soft’ on China” after the “hard rhetoric” of the campaign, Kuijs said.
Chinese leaders were quieter during this year’s election than in the 2016 presidential race, when they favoured Trump over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. They disliked her for carrying out then-President Barack Obama’s foreign policy, which included pressuring Beijing on human rights. Trump’s public image of business success resonated with the Chinese public.
Trump shook up China’s leaders by hiking tariffs on Chinese products in 2018 over complaints Beijing steals or pressures companies to hand over technology.
The White House has lobbied allies to exclude telecom equipment giant Huawei Technologies Ltd, China’s first global tech brand, from next-generation telecom networks on security grounds. Huawei’s access to American components and technology was cut off over the past year, threatening to cripple its global sales.
Trump is trying to bar Chinese social media companies from the United States, citing fears they might gather too much personal information about Americans. The White House is pressing video service TikTok to sell its US operation and is trying to block companies from dealing with WeChat, the popular Chinese message service.
Just watched the youtube video
“I explain why i think Obama is an evil man and leads an evil ideology” by Harbir Nain
Also watched “Trump Card” film by Dinesh D’Souza. Incredibly eye-opening.
Happy Diwali to all those who celebrate.
At last the Xi Jinping has come to calculating sense of judgment. It’s more in Chinese interest not to antagonise Biden administration and the American public further than to lend indirect support to Trump’s effort to create chaos by agreeing to Trump’s claim that the American election is inconclusive at this point of time.
Here China wants to seen as fair and non-interfering in the affairs of another. But in reality CCP knows that Joe Biden has won and Trump has lost. Chinese interest here not win or loss of Biden Vs Trump. But Trump’s creation of a situation which the CCP implies as that the American system is inherently chaotic, unjust and incompetent.
So now after weighing antagonising Biden against prolonging Trump’s Chaos, Xi Jinping has sensibly dropped the latter. Hence acknowledgement of victory of Biden at last from the Chinese government.
The CCP at last arrived at the conclusion that it was a massive defeat for Trump and there was no way he could rise from the dead. Biden will pursue a muscular China policy to contain Chinese territorial expansion and world power ambition through assembling like minded democracies that was the bedrock of US policy since the Second World War.
The CCP is on a mission to overthrow the US as the only super power and destroy democracy world wide in order to spread their totalitarian ideology. Hong Kong is where we can see what the CCP is up to. Their next ambition is Taiwan which is a vibrant democracy.
Whether democracy survives or not depends on the ability of the US and its allies to defend it. With Joe Biden at the helms he will be able to re-connect with America’s traditional allies to confront the menace of communist China.
The next ten years will be crucial as the CCP builds its military capability to challenge the might of America. The only way to contain and counter attack is a united front of liberal democracies against illiberal and totalitarian China.
The US must support the Chinese people to gain freedom from CCP dictatorship by supporting Chinese democracy movement, the Tibetan Freedom Movement, the East Turkistan Movement, Falung Gung and South Mongolians.
There is no such thing as internal affairs when crime is committed by a state using terror as a weapon. Tibet and East Turkistan are under military occupation for the last seven decades. Millions have been killed and millions are put into concentration camps for forced indoctrination into communism.
The CCP is forcing the people of these occupied territories to pledge allegiance to the Chinese State by force. Those who refuse are sent to concentration camps. This is how the CCP operates!