The China of recent decades has played its diplomatic cards discreetly, making much less noise than its demographic, commercial and military weight would allow. But Xi Jinping’s China no longer shies away from the limelight and, with the help of a Foreign Minister as experienced as Wang Yi, it does not give up either.
The head of Beijing diplomacy broke down this Thursday, before the foreign press, the role that the Asian giant intends to play on the international board, without tiptoeing through the two wars at the gates of Europe. “There must be an immediate ceasefire in Gaza,” Wang demanded. “Not stopping this tragedy is a shame for civilization.”
The Chinese foreign minister has reiterated his country’s position, favorable “to the establishment of a fully recognized Palestinian state.” A purpose shared by the vast majority of the UN General Assembly, whose lack of implementation has been blamed on “certain permanent members of the Security Council”, alluding to the US and the United Kingdom.
China, which depends on Middle East crude oil, broke its traditional discretion in this part of the world more than a year ago, when it sponsored the restoration of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Israeli invasion of Gaza has also led Beijing to speak out on this conflict more clearly than ever, which has earned it great sympathy in the so-called Global South, including, of course, Arab and Muslim countries.
“If the United States continues saying one thing and doing another, it will be very difficult to take them seriously,” Wang said ironically. He has spoken out with much less irony regarding the island of Taiwan. “Whoever plays with fire, he will burn his fingers.” Although the US does not recognize the Republic of China (Taiwan) as a state, nor does it call its representative in Taipei an ambassador, the truth is that Joe Biden’s government has gone even further than Donald Trump in its policy of rearmament and to encourage sovereignty, sending high-ranking officials who had not set foot in that Chinese territory since the seventies.
In this sense, Wang Yi has warned that “a confrontation between China and the US would have catastrophic consequences.” The diplomat has referred with much more confidence to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with an equidistance that has been criticized in the West. Despite the fact that, until proven otherwise, it is not precisely China that sends weapons and ammunition to fuel said war. Wang has encouraged the resumption of peace negotiations, such as those that were about to bear fruit in Istanbul two years ago.
The foreseeable effect of this conflict has been to drive Russia into the arms of China, something that does not seem to bother Beijing – Moscow’s partner in the BRICS group – at all, as the Chinese Foreign Minister pointed out this Thursday.
This one, on the other hand, has remained silent when asked about the fate of his ephemeral predecessor, Qin Gang, defenestrated and disappeared after a skirt scandal.
Wang Yi’s press conference will not culminate with another by the Chinese Prime Minister – currently, Li Qiang – thus breaking with a tradition of more than thirty years, in a return to secrecy that is not entirely unexpected. The framework for the interventions of both leaders – under the watchful eye of President Xi Jinping and almost three thousand communist delegates – is the Double Session in the legislature, the Great Hall of the People, one of the most important events on the Chinese political calendar.
Although China will not experience the growth of the last two decades again – the same growth has been set for 2024, 5%, as that set a year ago – and it is beginning to age and lose population, the outlook does not is more flattering among its European or Asian competitors. Today, in addition, the unexpectedly good data on exports in the first two months has been known, with a trade balance surplus equivalent to 125,000 million dollars.
Although the real estate crisis is serious and there could be up to twenty million unfinished homes, due to the inability of construction companies to meet their debts. A successful Catalan graphic designer recently settled in Thailand, after more than twelve years in China, sums up the feeling. “For many years we believed that Shanghai was going to be New York, that it would even surpass it. Not anymore. Not for us.”
China no longer shies away from prominence on the world stage, because its interests are already everywhere. But now in its fourth decade of “peaceful rise,” it is spending more than ever to maintain it by all means, something that now includes the recently announced construction of its fourth aircraft carrier, possibly the first nuclear one.
