Post by Blitz on Feb 3, 2024 10:01:08 GMT -5
China’s next top envoy promises new US approach
Yet time will tell whether Liu Jianchao, just returned from cordial US trip, is another wolf warrior in sheep’s clothing
By JEFF PAO - FEBRUARY 3, 2024
asiatimes.com/2024/02/chinas-next-top-envoy-promises-new-us-approach/
Liu Jianchao is a career diplomat in China. Photo: YouTube, Council on Foreign Relations
In a low-profile visit to Washington, a 59-year-old Chinese career diplomat has vowed to change the country’s image of “wolf warrior” diplomacy and help increase cooperation between China and the United States.
Liu Jianchao, head of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is seen by the media as a hot candidate to become the next foreign minister, as well as a rising political star in China.
By succeeding former Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who was dismissed last July, Liu would also become one of the five state councilors of China.
State councilors and vice-premiers are called sub-national leaders in China. The rank above them is national leaders, which include Chinese President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang and five other CCP politburo standing committee members.
Politico, which frequently publishes leaks from US intelligence services, said on December 6 that Qin had already died, either from suicide or torture, in a military hospital in Beijing in late July.
Citing two unnamed people with access to top Chinese officials, the report said Qin and relatives of top rocket force officers had helped pass Chinese nuclear secrets to Western intelligence agencies. The Chinese government has not yet commented on the report.
Following Qin’s departure, Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CCP, has taken the position of foreign minister again until now. Liu has been sharing some of Wang’s diplomatic duties since late 2023.
Last October, Liu led a delegation of Chinese officials to visit France and meet with then-Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna and other key French officials and business people. In December, he visited the United Arab Emirates and met with the country’s Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
He visited the US on January 8-13 and met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on January 12.
Both sides reaffirmed the importance of continuing to implement the progress made on key issues in the summit between Xi and US President Joe Biden in San Francisco last November.
They discussed the detention of American citizens in China and other issues related to China’s human rights, Taiwan and the South China Sea. They also exchanged views on issues about Ukraine, North Korea, Middle East and the Red Sea.
Katsuji Nakazawa, a senior writer at Nikkei, says in an article published on February 1 that Liu’s recent US visit was an indirect result of the strengthening ties between Russia and North Korea.
Citing an unnamed source, the writer says Liu’s important missions to the US have a lot to do with the rapidly closing distance between North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He says Russia provided North Korea with more missile-related technology in order to secure the supply of artillery ammunition for its use in Ukraine. China is extremely uncomfortable with having its backyard broken into, he says, and is seeking to bind with the US.
While it will take time to see whether this narrative is true or not, it seems that Wang remains the top contact person for security issues. On January 26-27, Wang spent 12 hours meeting with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in Bangkok.
International order
With his fluent spoken English, Liu displayed good warm-up skills during his dialogues with American diplomats and business leaders he met in the US.
“China does not seek to change the current international order, still less reinvent the wheel by creating a new international order,” Liu said in an event organized by the Council on Foreign Relations. “We are one of the builders of the current world order and have benefited from it.”
When he was asked by the Council’s President Michael Froman about China’s wolf warrior diplomacy and Taiwan matters, he gave some standard answers.
“I don’t really believe that there has always been a kind of wolf warrior diplomacy – and there’s no talk about coming back to that diplomacy,” he said.
“For China, the Taiwan question is at the very core of the core interests. It’s the red line that mustn’t be crossed and we take seriously the statements of the US not supporting Taiwan independence. And we hope that the US side will honor this commitment,” he said.
In a little joke to top off the conversation, Froman described Liu as “a wolf warrior in sheep’s clothing.”
Liu’s US trip came after Xi and Biden congratulated each other on January 1, which marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the US in 1979.
It was immediately followed by the presidential election in Taiwan. Beijing was disappointed that the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) could renew its term by four years.
On January 24, the Wall Street Journal said Liu will probably be appointed as the new Chinese foreign minister when the National People’s Congress holds its annual meeting in early March.
Yet time will tell whether Liu Jianchao, just returned from cordial US trip, is another wolf warrior in sheep’s clothing
By JEFF PAO - FEBRUARY 3, 2024
asiatimes.com/2024/02/chinas-next-top-envoy-promises-new-us-approach/
Liu Jianchao is a career diplomat in China. Photo: YouTube, Council on Foreign Relations
In a low-profile visit to Washington, a 59-year-old Chinese career diplomat has vowed to change the country’s image of “wolf warrior” diplomacy and help increase cooperation between China and the United States.
Liu Jianchao, head of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is seen by the media as a hot candidate to become the next foreign minister, as well as a rising political star in China.
By succeeding former Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who was dismissed last July, Liu would also become one of the five state councilors of China.
State councilors and vice-premiers are called sub-national leaders in China. The rank above them is national leaders, which include Chinese President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang and five other CCP politburo standing committee members.
Politico, which frequently publishes leaks from US intelligence services, said on December 6 that Qin had already died, either from suicide or torture, in a military hospital in Beijing in late July.
Citing two unnamed people with access to top Chinese officials, the report said Qin and relatives of top rocket force officers had helped pass Chinese nuclear secrets to Western intelligence agencies. The Chinese government has not yet commented on the report.
Following Qin’s departure, Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CCP, has taken the position of foreign minister again until now. Liu has been sharing some of Wang’s diplomatic duties since late 2023.
Last October, Liu led a delegation of Chinese officials to visit France and meet with then-Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna and other key French officials and business people. In December, he visited the United Arab Emirates and met with the country’s Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
He visited the US on January 8-13 and met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on January 12.
Both sides reaffirmed the importance of continuing to implement the progress made on key issues in the summit between Xi and US President Joe Biden in San Francisco last November.
They discussed the detention of American citizens in China and other issues related to China’s human rights, Taiwan and the South China Sea. They also exchanged views on issues about Ukraine, North Korea, Middle East and the Red Sea.
Katsuji Nakazawa, a senior writer at Nikkei, says in an article published on February 1 that Liu’s recent US visit was an indirect result of the strengthening ties between Russia and North Korea.
Citing an unnamed source, the writer says Liu’s important missions to the US have a lot to do with the rapidly closing distance between North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He says Russia provided North Korea with more missile-related technology in order to secure the supply of artillery ammunition for its use in Ukraine. China is extremely uncomfortable with having its backyard broken into, he says, and is seeking to bind with the US.
While it will take time to see whether this narrative is true or not, it seems that Wang remains the top contact person for security issues. On January 26-27, Wang spent 12 hours meeting with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in Bangkok.
International order
With his fluent spoken English, Liu displayed good warm-up skills during his dialogues with American diplomats and business leaders he met in the US.
“China does not seek to change the current international order, still less reinvent the wheel by creating a new international order,” Liu said in an event organized by the Council on Foreign Relations. “We are one of the builders of the current world order and have benefited from it.”
When he was asked by the Council’s President Michael Froman about China’s wolf warrior diplomacy and Taiwan matters, he gave some standard answers.
“I don’t really believe that there has always been a kind of wolf warrior diplomacy – and there’s no talk about coming back to that diplomacy,” he said.
“For China, the Taiwan question is at the very core of the core interests. It’s the red line that mustn’t be crossed and we take seriously the statements of the US not supporting Taiwan independence. And we hope that the US side will honor this commitment,” he said.
In a little joke to top off the conversation, Froman described Liu as “a wolf warrior in sheep’s clothing.”
Liu’s US trip came after Xi and Biden congratulated each other on January 1, which marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the US in 1979.
It was immediately followed by the presidential election in Taiwan. Beijing was disappointed that the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) could renew its term by four years.
On January 24, the Wall Street Journal said Liu will probably be appointed as the new Chinese foreign minister when the National People’s Congress holds its annual meeting in early March.