In the face of strong diplomatic headwinds, Xi seems to be deciding his time is better spent focused on shoring up regime security at home.
By: Jianli Yang
Sep 18, 2023
While U.S. President Joe Biden has repeatedly expressed his willingness to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, there has been no definitive response from Beijing. On September 4, however, China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) published an article laying out the conditions for a Biden-Xi meeting.
In part, the MSS stated that in order “to truly achieve ‘from Bali to San Francisco,’” the United States must “show enough sincerity.” (“Bali” refers to the meeting between Biden and Xi that took place on the Indonesian island during last October’s APEC summit, while “San Francisco” refers to the widely speculated possible meeting between Biden and Xi at this year’s APEC summit to be held in San Francisco in November.)
The unusual move by China’s MSS has so far gone largely unnoticed by the international media. In general, it is normal for a government agency of any country to make statements regarding the diplomatic affairs in which it is involved. What is unusual is for a security or intelligence agency, even if it is involved in diplomatic affairs, to interfere in decisions on such high-level matters as the conditions for meeting with the head of state of a very important foreign nation… [Continue Reading]
Source: https://thediplomat.com/2023/09/xi-jinpings-diplomacy-is-shifting-from-offense-to-defense/#