On November 15, 2023, during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, President Biden and Dictator Xi met for several hours to discuss problems. Before and after their hours-long meeting away from the cameras, they made public comments, including the following:
Joe Biden: We have to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict.
[Too late.]
Biden: Critical global challenges we face, from climate change to counternarcotics to artificial intelligence, demand our joint efforts.
[No.]
Xi Jinping: For two large countries like China and the United States, turning their back on each other is not an option.
[What does “turn their back on” mean in this context? Would the U.S. turning its back on China mean refusal to cooperate with China in the commission of China’s crimes?]
Xi: Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed.
[Earth would be plenty big enough for all 195 or so countries if only they all left each other and all innocent people alone. But this is a mode of being that is alien to many governments, including the Chinese government.]
Xi: It is unrealistic for one side to remodel the other.
[This is a way of rejecting criticism of the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship regardless of validity. The Chinese government should certainly accept and implement any remodeling that entails ending censorship; ending the systematic harassment, imprisonment, and murder of innocent people; ending the encroachments on the territory of other countries; ending one-party rule.]
Biden: We’re back to direct, open clear direct communication on a direct basis.
[No, the Biden-Xi communications will not from now on be direct and open and clear.]
Xi: The fundamental principles that we follow in handling China-U.S. relations are mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation.
[Xi should become better acquainted with his government’s actions and propaganda, the latter of which is illustrated by the above statement.]
Xi: We are proud of our choice [of “socialism with Chinese characteristics”], just as you are proud of yours. Our paths are different, but both are the choice by our peoples, and both lead to the realization of the common values of humanity. They should be both respected.
[Who are the “we” and “you” for whom Xi presumes to speak here? Are the innocent persons within China who have been harassed, sterilized, imprisoned, brainwashed, raped, and murdered or almost murdered by the CCP “proud” of the choices that led to this abuse, and did they make the choice to be treated this way themselves? Nor are residents of the United States unanimously proud of any particular aspect of the U.S. social system. Nor do freedom and slavery “both lead to the common values of humanity” or constitute “common values.”]
White House Readout of the Private Meeting: President Biden underscored the universality of human rights and the responsibility of all nations to respect their international human rights commitments. He raised concerns regarding PRC human rights abuses, including in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong.
[It’s good if Biden did in fact raise such concerns and did so more than perfunctorily. We don’t know. We also don’t know what Xi said in reply, if anything, assuming he had anything to reply to. If Xi had hinted at any intention to enact even minor civilizing reform of his government, such an intimation would presumably have made it into the readout. But Xi’s comment about how it is “unrealistic” for “one side to remodel the other” is a way of saying “back off, we’ll be as tyrannical as we like.”]
