Was President Xi Jinpeng’s behavior at the APEC conference last week just for show?
Gregory R. Copley, writing for oilprice.com, explores the possibility that Xi is seeking American help to stay in power. “Specific reports are emerging as to the driving forces which made Xi act, in seeming desperation, to kowtow to US Pres. Joe Biden at the summit held on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) in San Francisco between November 13 and 17,2023.”
The bullet points for Copley’s article are handily listed at top:
- Despite a significant economic crisis in mainland China since 2015, Xi has taken minimal steps to address it.
- During his visit to San Francisco, Xi, seemingly desperate, requested a substantial $900-billion bailout for the Chinese economy from President Biden.
- The leak came from within the CCP, indicating a faction eager to bring down Xi.
Looming behind current events, explains Copley, is mainland China’s economic crisis, which “Xi had taken virtually no steps to contain or correct.” What’s happened over the last decade is a series of seemingly contradictory policies, such as plying “a charm offensive against the U.S.” immediately after a long period of “attempting to push the economy under the domination of the state-owned enterprises.”
“The sudden volte-face by Xi, typical of his behavior since the October 2022 Party Congress at which he disposed of almost all of his visible opponents,” Copley writes, “highlighted more than ever his instability and, now, his increasing desperation as it has become clear that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was patently unready and unprepared to execute Xi’s proposed military takeover of the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan.” This has placed his grasp on power in a delicate position, and is likely why he blithely passed over President Biden’s indecorous comment about Xi being a “dictator.” Xi is desperate.
So Xi outright begged Biden for a subsidy, a leak from within the CCP putatively informs us. Of $900 billion.
The U.S. has spare billion dollar hoards just lying around, you know.
