Editor’s note for April 18, 2023
A note for Access newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn.
Dear reader:
It’s been an extraordinary month or so for Chinese diplomacy.
March 17: Archrivals Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to normalize relations in a deal brokered by the Chinese government and signed in Beijing.
March 22: Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 wrapped up a three-day visit to Moscow that sent a clear signal to the U.S. and NATO that China was not going to give Russia the cold shoulder, no matter what happens in Ukraine. Xi told Putin as he bade him goodbye at the Kremlin door: “Right now there are changes — the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years — and we are the ones driving these changes together.”
April 5–7: Xi hosted French President Emmanuel Macron for a three-day state visit during which French companies signed deals, as Macron pleased his host during meetings in villas and gardens. Macron was accompanied by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, whose presence some saw as a reminder of European unity when it comes to China. But on the plane flying home, Macron gave an interview that threw Taiwan under the bus.
April 12–15: Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visited China and made appropriate remarks about multipolarity. Lula also called for an end to dollar dominance of the world’s financial systems. The Brazilian delegation also signed a clutch of trade and cooperation deals.
April 14: Top diplomats from China, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan gathered in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to discuss Afghanistan. Taliban representatives were at the meeting, which is the subject of our top story today: Click through for the whole thing or scroll down for a summary.
April 18: China offered to broker peace talks between Israel and Palestine.
This frenetic diplomatic calendar is remarkable coming after three years of COVID isolation, and considering Beijing’s historic reluctance to get involved in other countries’ affairs. And media reports, and even Chinese state propaganda, keep mentioning a possible role for Beijing in bringing peace to Ukraine.
But Beijing has not displayed any inclination to actually do anything about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, or the civil war in Yemen that is a proxy conflict for Iran and Saudi Arabia. And most of the meetings and phone calls described above are so far just that — meetings and phone calls.
Time will tell if they result in real breakthroughs and changes in the global system, or if they are all just ritualistic ceremonies and Zoom fluff.
Our Word of the Day is: Two Establishments (两个确立 liǎng gè quèlì), a political slogan first promoted in 2021, establishing Xi Jinping as China’s “core” leader, and Xi Jinping Thought as official doctrine.
