With Xi Jinping Likely To Visit US In November, Former Obama Advisor Predicts 'Calmer Environment' In Relations With China
Benzinga · 01/06/2023 07:19
Former U.S. President Barack Obama's advisor predicts a "calmer environment" in U.S.-China relations in the coming months as Beijing prepares to lay the groundwork for Chinese President Xi Jinping's potential visit to the U.S. in November for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders meeting.
What Happened: In a commentary, Ryan Hass, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said, "With Xi traveling to the United States in November for the APEC leaders meeting, a calmer environment would support his interest in being accorded preferential treatment by U.S. President Joe Biden."
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Hass served as a National Security Council director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia under Obama.
Hass predicted that faced with mounting social, economic and public health-related stresses, "it is reasonable to expect China's leaders will respond by seeking to calm their external environment to concentrate on challenges at home."
"To help counter scrutiny of their domestic governance record, they will want to present an image to their people of being afforded dignity and respect abroad. Nowhere will such symbolism matter more than in the U.S.-China context," Hass said.
Meanwhile, Chinese officials have also been seen using a milder tone to kick off 2023.
In an op-ed published in The Washington Post, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang was seen arguing that "the planet's future depends on a stable China-U.S. relationship."
Qin also recollected his fond memories in the past 17 months as China's ambassador to the U.S., of driving a John Deere tractor in Iowa, visiting a corn farm in Missouri and witnessing huge stacks of China-bound containers at the ports of Boston and Long Beach.
"I leave the United States more convinced that the door to China-U.S. relations will remain open and cannot be closed," Qin wrote.
Xi, in his New Year's message, also refrained from using the word "reunification" while speaking about Taiwan.
The people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are members of one and the same family," Xi said, adding, "I sincerely hope that our compatriots on both sides of the Strait will work together with a unity of purpose to jointly foster lasting prosperity of the Chinese nation."
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