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Opinion | With Xi’s G20 no-show, China is quietly pushing back against the US
- With its penchant for tactical pushback, Beijing is surely sending a message with the no-show
- Beneath the conciliatory tone of recent visits by US officials, China is letting it be known it will not take US containment lying down
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Chinese President Xi Jinping is to skip the G20 meeting in New Delhi this weekend; Premier Li Qiang, his No 2, is going instead. This is quite a symbolic gesture in the context of US-China relations, especially considering that a positive new normal seems to be taking shape with a series of interactions spearheaded by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Beijing in June.
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US President Joe Biden said he was “disappointed” that Xi would not attend the G20 meeting, adding however that “I am going to get to see him”.
Practically speaking, following visits by Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and climate ambassador John Kerry over recent months, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s China tour last month had been more consequential to bilateral relations.
In particular, Washington’s removal of 27 Chinese companies from a tech export control blacklist ahead of Raimondo’s arrival in Beijing was a rare sign of good faith, in view of the Biden administration’s preference for dealing with Beijing from a position of strength.
During the commerce secretary’s visit, groups were set up to jointly work on concrete measures to resolve commercial issues and explain each side’s export controls to the other; as hollow as this might sound, it shows both sides’ determination to engage.
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It helped that the Chinese side showed signs of readiness to take delivery of Boeing 737 Max jets again.
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