About a week ago, Xi Jingping, the President of China and second-most powerful person in the world, made his first visit to the United States. This is a historic moment, certainly more important than Pope Francis’ more-publicized trip. Xi’s trip comes at a crossing point for Sino-American relations, as the Middle Kingdom’s economy begins to slow while still retaining an enormous amount of power vis-a-vis the United States. Xi himself is arguably the most important Chinese leader since Deng Xiaoping and his first visit to the United States is no small matter.
The most striking feature of Xi’s visit was how much his rhetoric contradicts his actions. To call his speeches frank and honest would be anything but true. In his speech at the United Nations, Xi stated his support for women’s rights and gender equality, yet simultaneously his government has detained several feminists for protesting sexual harassment on public transportation. Hillary Clinton called Xi’s faux support for gender equality “shameless” on Twitter, and rightfully so.
Xi said that he welcomed foreign NGOs, yet he is also pushing through legislation that will require them to have a government agency “sponsor” them in order to operate in China. Many NGOs will have their activity severely restricted while some will go out of business altogether.
Xi said that he would ensure that China remains open to foreign media and he even met with Mark Zuckerberg. Yet Facebook and many other foreign websites remain blocked by the “Great Firewall of China.”
One of the most important topics on Xi’s agenda was the South China Sea, where China is in several disputes with its neighbors. Tensions in the South China Sea are a major concern for the United States, especially since a third of global trade passes through the region. Again, Xi’s rhetoric on the issue was less than truthful. Xi pledged that the artificial islands China is dredging up would not be militarized. However, the islands have already been heavily militarized. Satellite imagery show that the Chinese have completed a 3,000-meter airfield capable of accommodating most of China’s transport and tactical aircraft on Fiery Cross Reef, the largest of China’s artificial islands. Admiral Harry Harris, commander of Pacific Command, told the Aspen Security Forum that China is building hangars on Fiery Cross that appear to be meant for fighter aircraft. In addition to air assets, Fiery Cross also has a harbor capable of housing even the largest Chinese naval vessels. This is just one of seven artificial islands the Chinese are turning into strongholds. If this isn’t militarization, nothing is.
It is clear that the Chinese are taking Sun Tzu’s emphasis on deception to heart. In true Regina George-fashion, Xi is being nice to America’s face but acting very differently behind its back. In international relations, countries often say one thing and do another. It is important to be wary of the intention of all foreign governments, especially one as shrewd and calculating as China’s.
Perhaps the most important agreement reached between Xi and Obama was on cyber-security. Xi pledged to crack down on cyber-theft that steals commercial secrets from American businesses. While Xi probably means what he says (it is not in China’s interest to subvert the economy that it has invested so much into), it is unlikely that civilian leaders will be able to rein in the rogue cyber activities of the People’s Liberation Army, who are the most likely culprits of the recent string of cyber-theft. As Professor Matsamura Masahiro of Momoyama Gakuin University points out, the civilian government has difficulty controlling the PLA, a situation that bears an uncomfortable resemblance to Imperial Japan in the 1930s. PLA leaders are more concerned with weakening the United States, whom they see as China’s greatest enemy, than they are with ensuring economic harmony.
There is a part of Xi’s UN speech that I believe was completely honest and probably will be carried out. Xi pledged thousands of troops and billions of dollars toward UN peacekeeping operations. China has long opposed humanitarian interventions like the NATO mission in Libya. However, China’s new stance is not out of a shift in morality on China’s part. Rather, China is attempting to safeguard its own interests. China has found that, like all other great powers, it must intervene in other countries to preserve security and economic interests.
This is especially true of China, which is largely reliant on foreign countries, many of which are unstable, for raw materials. Africa is of key importance to China, a continent with vast natural resources in which the Chinese have made huge investments. The Chinese have already sent hundreds of peacekeepers to South Sudan, a nation on the brink of civil war that supplies oil to China. The increasing role of China in Africa and other unstable regions can be welcomed on humanitarian grounds but also must be met with reservations as it signals an increasingly powerful and assertive Dragon.
Has Xi’s visit changed much for Sino-American relations? Not really. While Xi set out to calm a United States increasingly nervous about China’s rise, only the most naive will buy his assurances. No matter how many smiles and handshakes the United States and China exchange, the two nations will remain locked in a competition for supremacy.