China
Xi Jinping’s US Visit: A Test of Power Among China’s Elite
习近平下周将抵达华盛顿，寻求在贸易、人工智能治理和安全等方面达成协议，但分析人士认为他的主要目的是向国内展示实力。此次访问可能有助于缓解中美关系，并稳定国内政治局势。
Chinese President Xi Jinping will land in Washington next week pursuing deals on trade, AI governance, and security, but analysts say his true objective lies in projecting strength to a domestic audience ahead of an upcoming political shakeup.
Xi is scheduled to arrive Wednesday, Sept. 23, at a time when personnel changes are starting to take shape in the runup to next year’s national congress of the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP.
The international community is paying attention to the possibility that Xi will continue as the party’s leader for an unprecedented fourth term. Most analysts expect that to be the most probable outcome, but Xi still needs to ensure a smooth transition between his current term and his next, a Chinese political scientist, who identifies by the pseudonym Ding Wang for personal safety reasons, told RFA.
“Personnel selection and appointment are often accompanied by power struggles among different factions within the party,” said Ding. “If Xi Jinping receives a high-level reception in Washington, it can demonstrate his dominance in personnel arrangements and the diplomatic arena.”
Images of Xi meeting and negotiating with U.S. President Donald Trump will serve to boost the perception that Xi is still a capable leader, Ding said.
“The related footage, after being broadcast by state media, will help strengthen his image as the leader of a major power’s diplomacy, which is also in line with the outside world’s perception that he is in control of the overall situation,” Ding said.
Key to insulating Xi from internal dissent will be how well he can decrease bilateral friction through economic overtures.
Business delegation
Xi plans to lead a delegation of business leaders during his visit with an aim to address several bilateral trade issues that analysts have said are likely to include easing of trade barriers to increase U.S. agricultural sales to China.
The plan has not been finalized, but it would be a rare instance of such a large group of business executives accompanying a national leader on a state trip since Beijing’s crackdown on the increasingly unregulated domestic technology, education, and real estate sectors in 2020 as a means to reassert state control.
The crackdown resulted in the imprisonment of many prominent Chinese businessmen including real estate tycoon Ren Zhiqiang and agriculture magnate Sun Dawu, and others.
Adding business leaders on a foreign trip is not consistent with the CCP’s policies over the last decade, a Chinese independent scholar, using the pseudonym Xu Peng for security reasons, told RFA.
“Many policies, from politics, economics, and culture to domestic affairs, diplomacy, and national defense, have run counter to the general direction of reform and opening up,” said Xu.
The ‘Eastward rise, Westward decline’ approach – an ideological concept embraced by Chinese leadership that suggests power is shifting away from the West and toward China – “is no longer viable, so they’ve temporarily decided to bring a group of business leaders along,” he said.
Beijing may hope Chinese companies will invest in the U.S. and purchase American agricultural products and energy to ease economic friction, said Xu.
“However, with entrepreneurs like Ren Zhiqiang and Sun Dawu still imprisoned, Beijing’s decision to send a business delegation abroad at this time is unlikely to dispel concerns about the situation of Chinese private enterprises.”
Beijing hopes to stabilize relations with Washington through expanding economic and trade cooperation, and this in turn would give China the leg up in its negotiations with the European Union, an economic advisor close to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, identified by her surname Peng, told RFA.
“Both sides are currently using their respective bargaining chips,” said Peng. “As far as I know, some companies in Inner Mongolia are delaying the delivery of rare earth products to the U.S., and the delivery time has also become part of the bargaining between the two sides.”
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