How China uses diplomatic visits to manipulate and exploit the West

Last week, China got what it has been wanting since the Biden administration arrived in office: a visit by the U.S. official best positioned and most inclined to make the economic concessions it seeks, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. If Beijing had had its way with Washington, Yellen would have been welcomed there months ago, before the spy balloon incident and before the planned February visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken that was cancelled because of it.

The Chinese would have preferred wheeling and dealing with Yellen on trade and tariff issues rather than being hectored by Blinken on human rights and security concerns. They believed they would be able to extract significant concessions from Yellen without giving up much in return. 

That has been the pattern of Sino-U.S. negotiations since President Nixon and Henry Kissinger thought they were giving away Taiwan for Chinese promises on Vietnam and a more peaceful approach to Taiwan, both of which proved illusory. To its credit in the present, less dramatic standoff, the Biden team held firm and refused a Yellen visit until Blinken had his meeting in Beijing, though it is not yet clear what he may have conceded to China on that trip.

Yellen’s concessions have not yet been disclosed either. But China prepared a stern reception for her by cutting off supplies of rare earth metals to Western companies and investigating Micron, America’s largest chip maker

Meanwhile, Beijing abruptly cancelled a long-scheduled visit to China by European Union High Representative Josep Borrell, to discuss trade, human rights and the war in Ukraine.

Beijing did not explain the cancellation, but it followed an EU summit that proposed sourcing rare earth metals and other critical materials from countries other than China.

Europe has become impatient over the gap between Beijing’s posturing as a benign international player and its concrete actions. An EU spokesperson said, “We want to engage with China, but we need progress and we need it this year.”

On Russia’s war in Ukraine, China has proposed a 12-point “peace plan” starting with a ceasefire that Kyiv and the West have criticized as little more than a respite for Russian forces and an opportunity for Vladimir Putin to rebuild and prepare for a renewed offensive. 

Western officials also question Beijing’s good faith because it has never condemned the Russian invasion, instead blaming the West for provoking it. It effectively gave Moscow an anticipatory green light in February 2022 when Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping met in Beijing to declare their “no-limits strategic partnership” explicitly dedicated to upending the rules-based international order. Russia’s second invasion of Ukraine and the series of Russian war crimes it spawned apparently did not shock or disgust Chinese leaders the way they did Western publics.

Moreover, China continues to provide Russia with dual-use technology and military spare parts that are used to kill Ukrainians and destroy Ukraine’s critical civilian infrastructure. And it has dramatically increased its purchase of Russian oil to provide a bountiful flow of cash to fund continuation of Putin’s war.

It was those realities that prompted Borrell to prepare a hard-hitting speech intended to be delivered on his visit to Beijing, first planned for April until he contracted COVID:

“It will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the European Union to maintain a relationship of trust with China, which I would like to see, if China does not contribute to the search for a political solution based on Russia’s withdrawal from the Ukrainian territory. … Neutrality in the face of the violation of international law is not credible.” 

Xi clearly did not want to hear that message or any other moralistic lecturing from Western leaders.

Instead, he welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron’s silence on human rights during his April visit, and his words about Europe not being a “vassal” to the U.S. on the Taiwan issue. Macron may still be miffed by Biden’s secret sabotaging of the French conventional submarine deal with Australia in 2021, in favor of a U.S.-UK alternative now called AUKUS.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen accompanied Macron but her straight talk on China’s human rights violations, unfair trade practices and tacit support for Russia’s aggression was largely overshadowed by Macron’s controversial remarks.  

Other administrations have also been beguiled by visits with America’s adversaries. Former President Clinton went to Beijing in 1998 and made the “three no’s” declaration against Taiwan. Former President Trump met with Kim Jong Un in Hanoi and absolved him of any responsibility for the torture and death of U.S. student Otto Warmbier.

It is not necessary for Western leaders to travel to the dictators’ home turf to tell them what they want to hear. At a White House meeting in 2 012, President Obama whispered to Dmitri Medvedev, then Putin’s temporary stand-in president, “Tell Vladimir I can be more flexible after my reelection.”

True to his word, and with the support of his in-house foreign policy expert, then Vice President Biden, Obama looked the other way in 2014 when Russian forces helped Bashar Assad defy U.S. “red lines” with his chemical and other criminal attacks against the Syrian people, and also in 2014 when Putin first invaded Eastern Ukraine and Crimea.

But Beijing finds face-to-face meetings with accommodating U.S. and Western officials the most effective way of extracting policy concessions, as long as it is with the right officials from China’s standpoint. It hopes to maintain the momentum achieved with the Yellen visit in a planned trip by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo later this summer. China will continue its full-court press for easing of U.S. sanctions.

Beijing continues to refuse even to discuss with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin crisis deconfliction measures after a series of increasingly dangerous naval and air near-collisions until the U.S. lifts sanctions on its military leaders.

Washington wants to prevent a recurrence of the 2001 EP-3 incident when a Chinese fighter jet collided with a slow-moving, unarmed U.S. reconnaissance plane. After that event, Chinese officials refused to accept calls from U.S. diplomatic and military officials despite years of U.S. cultivation of contacts.

Now, Beijing is giving Washington the cold-shoulder treatment even before a new incident occurs.

The Biden administration should inform China there will be no visit by Raimondo until after serious conversations between Austin and his Chinese counterparts and meaningful follow-up actions.

Joseph Bosco served as China country director for the secretary of Defense from 2005 to 2006 and as Asia-Pacific director of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief from 2009 to 2010. He served in the Pentagon when Vladimir Putin invaded Georgia and was involved in Department of Defense discussions about the U.S. response. Follow him on Twitter @BoscoJosephA