Beijing takes its time before congratulating Joe Biden
Joe Biden, when he was vice president, cuddling with Chinese President Xi Jiping on September 25, 2015 in Washington (illustrative image).
PAUL J. RICHARDS / AFP
Text by: Stéphane Lagarde Follow
7 min
The election of Joe Biden opens many questions regarding the Sino-American relationship.
For now, the Chinese authorities are keeping quiet and analyzing a US situation more closely before advancing their pawns, especially at the commercial level.
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from our correspondent in Beijing,
In terms of public reaction, Chinese power is probably the most opposed to Donald Trump's tweeting frenzy.
Spontaneity is not the first quality of communist leaders and, this time again, Beijing is giving itself time to reflect before communicating on an election still contested by the outgoing president in the United States.
Xi Jinping, however, knows his new American counterpart very well.
It was he who invited him to China, when he had not yet been officially appointed head of the Chinese Communist Party in 2011. A meeting from vice president to vice president, during which Joe Biden had marked Chinese opinion by his simplicity by going to a small restaurant in the capital where he ordered
zha jiang mian
-Peking noodles-, an invigorating and inexpensive dish appreciated by Beijingers in a hurry.
From "prosperous and integrated China" to "strategic rival"
Following
Joe Biden's
victory
, American and Hong Kong correspondents rushed to the Beijing tavern once visited by "the expected winner of the 2020 American presidential election" as the broadcaster of China's Central Television calls it. abroad.
Ten years later, no portrait, no “Biden menu” in the old Beijing noodle restaurant, but the tender memory of someone “nice and full of humor” according to the owner of the place.
Joe Biden visited this Beijing noodle shop in 2011 when he was vice-president.
Today, they'd love if he returned pic.twitter.com/7RZbZjutjJ
SCMP News (@SCMPNews) November 9, 2020
The hashtag # 拜登 向 全国 发表 讲话 ("Biden speaks to the nation") being this Monday morning again among the most searched subjects on the sina-weibo network with 116 million clicks.
But this infatuation of part of Chinese public opinion for the elected US president is not yet shared by the state media.
It should be remembered that Joe Biden's speech has changed since his first visit to China in 2001. He was then vice-chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the US Senate.
The time when “
the United States welcomed the emergence of a prosperous and integrated China on the world stage.
Recalls the
New York Times.
Except that in two decades, the Chinese economy follows that of the United States and Joe Biden's speech has changed.
"
The United States must be tough on China
" he wrote last winter, considering Beijing now as a "
strategic rival
".
Trump is leaving, but Trumpism remains
Would Biden's victory have surprised the Chinese authorities?
This is what Wu Qiang seems to believe.
"
The question of long-term relations with the United States was the subject of studies, calculations and forecasts during the last party congress in Beijing
," confides this independent expert in Beijing, "
but the Chinese authorities were not not ready for this victory for the Democratic camp.
The Propaganda Department has criticized with all its might the Trump administration and elections seen as the decline of democracy and America.
But in reality every manager I know believed Trump was going to win.
Beijing is therefore assessing the situation
.
"
A wait-and-see attitude that contrasts with Chinese social networks which were passionate about the American election.
The hashtag # 拜登 向 全国 发表 讲话 ("Biden addresses the nation") is again this Monday morning among the most searched subjects on the sina-weibo network with 116 million clicks.
Academics and editorial writers are generally less enthusiastic, or at least more suspicious.
"
Biden wins, but Trumpism is still there,
" writes Professor Liu Yi in a
column
published on the WeChat account of influential publisher Sanlian Publishing.
For this head of the Department of Marxist Studies at Shanghai Normal University, the coming transition period promises to be full of “
uncertainties
”.
A speech that fits in with that of Lian Qingchuan.
"
Trump is leaving, but Trumpism still hovers over the White House, the United States and the world,
" said the editor of the
Financial Times
in Chinese,
in a very "hearted" post as well.
Resumption of dialogue and renegotiation at the margin
It is urgent to wait for Beijing, it is also urgent to be careful.
The term comes up regularly in the comments and in particular in a
post by Hu Xijing on
Sunday evening published on the sina-weibo platform.
The
Global Times
columnist
believes that if China should get in touch with Joe Biden's team in order to appease Sino-American relations, it certainly does not “irritate Trump”.
The outgoing American president "
does not accept defeat
" again notes the columnist, and the latter could express his frustration outside, especially against Beijing.
So it's about “
preparing for all kinds of changes
”.
And expected changes especially in commercial matters.
China hopes that Joe Biden's victory will allow Beijing to reverse certain paragraphs of the phase 1 agreement concluded between the Chinese and the Americans after long months of negotiations.
China has pledged to buy an additional $ 200 billion in US goods.
Beijing is expected to reach 65% of its targets for purchasing agricultural products in the United States by the end of the year.
But on structural issues, negotiations are deadlocked.
"
Biden will sooner or later launch a renegotiation of the trade agreement, because the latter is unrealistic
" thus affirms the Chinese state councilor Shi Yinhong, in remarks quoted by the
South China Morning
.
While knowing that renegotiation can only be done at the margins and that Joe Biden's position is to continue to "
be tough on China
".
For many analysts in China, the election of Joe Biden marks the return of the United States in the concert of nations with the possibility of exerting pressure together with the found allies of Washington, on issues such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Xinjiang or the seas of China.
► See also: Diplomacy according to Biden: America is back?
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