How much has changed in eight months: President Xi Jinping complained of “all-round containment” in March, shortly after the US shot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon and attributed the problems to China’s economic difficulties.
Then, during a meeting in California on Wednesday, the US and Xi made concrete headway in their first face-to-face negotiations in a year by agreeing to establish a presidential hotline, start military-to-military interactions again, and try to reduce the manufacturing of fentanyl.
Chinese official media is now adopting a new tack, emphasizing Xi’s grin from previous visits to Iowa, fireside conversations with its citizens, and exchanging chocolates with Biden—all while major concerns like US penalties on semiconductor exports remain unsolved. Videos from the summit that have been posted on China’s social media platforms show the two leaders strolling around the gardens at the meeting location and conversing outside of Xi’s official vehicle. Less prominently, they discuss US tech restrictions and tensions surrounding Taiwan.
According to observers, the Chinese rhetoric aims to portray Xi as Biden’s equal and emphasizes his desire to stabilize relations while China struggles with a faltering economy. Additionally, it gives the bureaucracy and companies the go-ahead to interact with Americans. “It indicates a very strong desire on the part of Chinese leaders to push for more cooperation and stabilize relations with the US,” said Li Mingjiang, a specialist of international relations at Singapore’s Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
“There’s this fundamental message in the Chinese narrative that the Chinese leader is capable of managing China-U.S. relations … he is the one who gives instructions to the US and the American leadership on how to manage the bilateral ties.”
‘Friends from America’
Additionally, Xinhua published a 1,500-word article recalling Xi’s previous trips to the US. “Xi never forgets his American friends and believes that people hold the key to state-to-state relations,” the Chinese media said. The article quoted Iowans who assisted in organizing Xi’s first visit to the state as a young official in 1985, remembering his “smile that would not stop” and praising his natural interest. It also mentioned a previous exchange in which Biden and Xi sampled chocolates from a box. Though Xi seen to be a longtime friend of China, Gary Dvorchak, an Iowan, stated that while Xi had a true affection for Iowa, the Chinese leader also used his connections to the state for propaganda purposes.
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