Recently I had a visit from a friend of mine who works at a U.S. embassy. I hadn’t heard from him for a while – he said that he had been inspired to catch up with his old friend after reading my piece “Why Read Xi Jinping’s Book?” on The Diplomat. He said his department had printed out that article and passed it around. Many people had already bought Xi’s book (the English-language edition) but most had not yet started to reading it – my article made them decide to start immediately. I jokingly told him that I didn’t get any money for this “advertisement.”
At the beginning of our chat, we discussed some of the opinions in my recent blog posts as well as some global hot spots. His comments were sincere and on point. As our conversation was winding down, he nonchalantly raised a question: “Why has China started caving in to the U.S.?” Upon hearing this question, I immediately realized this was the reason that he had come to find me. I feigned surprise, and answered with my own question: “Is China caving in?”
As expected, he started with the example of Vice Premier Wang Yang using the analogy of “husband and wife” to describe China-U.S. economic relations during the the fifth round of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in July 2013. Then he pointed out that in December 2014, at the 25th U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, Wang remarked that the United States is the leader of the world and “China has neither the intention nor the capability to challenge America’s leading status.” Finally my friend pointed to Premier Li Keqiang’s most recent speech.
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