On the surface, Xi Jinping’s week was one of the most classic. From Monday March 22 to Thursday March 25, the Chinese president was on an inspection tour in Fujian province, south of Shanghai. On the program: visit to tea fields, a public optics and electronics company, and mobile military police units. Quiet strength in all its glory.
But appearances are deceptive. In fact, the day after the icy meeting between Chinese and American diplomats in Alaska on March 18, Beijing stepped up diplomatic initiatives that only increased tensions with the United States and its allies, in particular the European Union (EU). .
In Anchorage, China had been shocked to see the Biden team consider themselves sufficiently in a position of strength to lecture them. Throughout the week, China has repeatedly shown him that those days are over. Especially since, on Monday March 22, the EU and then, in a coordinated manner Great Britain, Canada and the United States, announced sanctions against a company and four persons responsible for the systematic repression against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang. The symbol is strong but limited. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Secretary Chen Quanguo in Xinjiang, Main Responsible for What Some Call “Genocide” is spared. Probably because he is a member of the Political Bureau of the CCP. Despite this, Beijing’s response marks a veritable escalation of tension.
Chinese offensive
China sanctions no less than twenty-two people: ten Europeans (elected officials and Xinjiang experts), nine British (mainly conservative elected officials and academics), two members of the American Commission on International Religious Freedoms and a Canadian parliamentarian. Nine organizations are also sanctioned: four in Europe, four in Great Britain and one in Canada.
As luck would have it, at the same time, Chinese internet users recalled that several months ago, Western companies had indicated that they no longer supplied themselves with cotton from Xinjiang and called for the boycott of brands such as H&M, Nike, Adidas. , Uniqlo or Burberry. If the authorities claim not to be at the origin of this movement, they clearly support it. China’s internet giants have gone so far as to remove their names from online maps.
On the issue of human rights, not only does China no longer intend to be on the defensive, but also intends to be more offensive. “Sanctions are also a way for China to take more initiative in the field of human rights at the international level and to express more vigorously our own values and our speeches on human rights”, explains an expert interviewed by the Chinese daily Global Times. On Tuesday, Wang Yi, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, visiting China, also jointly denounced the use of human rights “ as an excuse to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries ”.
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