China welcomes Biden by announcing sanctions, and India's problem with dragonfruit
Welcome to today's The India China Newsletter.
China welcomed the inauguration of Joe Biden by announcing, by my count barely a few minutes after his taking the oath of office, the sanctioning of 28 officials connected with the Trump administration.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced:
Over the past few years, some anti-China politicians in the United States, out of their selfish political interests and prejudice and hatred against China and showing no regard for the interests of the Chinese and American people, have planned, promoted and executed a series of crazy moves which have gravely interfered in China's internal affairs, undermined China's interests, offended the Chinese people, and seriously disrupted China-U.S. relations. The Chinese government is firmly resolved to defend China's national sovereignty, security and development interests. China has decided to sanction 28 persons who have seriously violated China's sovereignty and who have been mainly responsible for such U.S. moves on China-related issues. They include Michael R. Pompeo, Peter K. Navarro, Robert C. O'Brien, David R. Stilwell, Matthew Pottinger, Alex M. Azar II, Keith J. Krach, and Kelly D. K. Craft of the Trump administration as well as John R. Bolton and Stephen K. Bannon. These individuals and their immediate family members are prohibited from entering the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao of China. They and companies and institutions associated with them are also restricted from doing business with China.
Hu Xijin, editor of the Global Times, had a curious take on Biden's speech (and perhaps not an entirely accurate one):
The general tone of Chinese strategic commentators has been more circumspect, with few expectations of a major change in relations and a realisation that many of the recent changes in the relationship have a bipartisan resonance. There is some optimism of limited cooperation (on climate change, Iran, which perhaps are seen as holding some leverage to China in terms of offering its help to the Biden administration) and less unpredictability and diplomacy-by-Twitter (which I’m sure most of us who follow the news will welcome - boring never sounded so good).
Also worth noting: most commentaries that suggest a more fruitful cooperative relationship with the U.S. come with the caveat that the ball is entirely in the U.S. court to fix ties and China won't give ground on most issues, which is something to keep in mind.
Two interesting recent Xinhua commentaries are perhaps a good reflection of the thinking in Beijing at the moment of transition:
Xinhua Commentary: Good riddance, Trump administration and its final madness
…They also imposed new sanctions on six Chinese officials regarding Hong Kong issues, another example of their blatant act to interfere in China's internal affairs, following the latest official interaction between the United States and China's Taiwan region to challenge the one-China principle.
These irresponsible moves are a poison created by a handful of people attempting to promote selfish political interests at the cost of China-U.S. relations. The bilateral relationship is a giant vessel carrying the well-being of 1.4 billion Chinese and 300 million Americans. Also, other countries should have enough mental sobriety and vigilance to avoid being hijacked onto the U.S. chariot or being used as a tool to maintain U.S. hegemony.
It should be noted, above all, that those politicians have clearly overestimated their ability to influence the course of China-U.S. relations. Outwardly, they appear to be tough, but they are actually weak on the inside. They have also underestimated China's strength and determination to take all measures to safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests.
China and the United States are actually in a good position to help each other succeed and can cooperate in lots of domains, including, but not limited to, the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic, tackling global climate change, and coping with the threat of nuclear proliferation and confrontation. U.S. policymakers in the future should not let this relationship be led astray by a small bunch of extreme forces.
No matter what other absurd measures Washington will introduce in the coming days to tarnish China-U.S. relations, they will not change the course of China's development and the course of China-U.S. relations. In other words, the anti-China policy of the current U.S. administration will only end in failure. China will maintain strong unity, conduct its own activities effectively and set its own calendar for doing so.
Certain U.S. politicians have left a reputation of destroyers of the international order, world peace and stability, and human rights in the world. Time is short for them to wake up to this reality and cure their madness, which is a stain in world history of development.
China, U.S. can have better future by focusing on cooperation
Over the past several years, China-U.S. relations have undergone the most difficult period since the establishment of diplomatic relations. Some extreme anti-China forces in the United States, out of ideological prejudice and personal political gains, took regressive steps and provoked disputes. They deliberately negated the history of bilateral relations, maliciously attacked the Communist Party of China (CPC) and China's political system, took provocative actions against the country's core interests, and grossly interfered in China's internal affairs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they passed the blame to China, trying to obstruct exchanges between the two countries in all fields and undermine bilateral cooperation. They also incited the "decoupling" of the two nations, coercing other countries into containing and confronting China in an attempt to create "parallel worlds" or "two systems" to push the world into division and turmoil. These actions went against the trend and the will of the people, and were opposed by the far-sighted personages in the United States and rejected by the world's people. Such attempts were doomed to fail.
The top priority for the two countries now is to sit down, have a comprehensive, candid and in-depth dialogue, clarify the strategic intentions of both sides, and rebuild mutual trust. Dr. Kissinger made the trip to China about 50 years ago to have in-depth talks with Chinese leaders. Now, we once again call for such spirit and actions.
The two sides should stick to a fundamental principle. China and the United States follow different social systems. These are choices made by the people of the two countries and they deserve mutual respect. China has no intention of changing the United States or replacing it. Likewise, the United States should not stick to its wishful thinking of changing China. It is impossible for the United States to block China's historical progress toward modernization. It behooves the two sides to develop bilateral relations following the fundamental principle of no conflict, no confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation.
The two sides should keep an essential bottom line in mind. The CPC is the ruling party of China, and it enjoys a high approval rate of 95 percent among the Chinese people.
The two sides should agree on a cooperation framework through negotiations. There are indeed differences between China and the United States, but this doesn't mean that the two sides cannot cooperate.
The framework cannot be agreed on overnight. While showing patience, the two sides should take it as an urgent task….A wise and feasible option for reaching such a framework is to get down to the business at hand, as specified in the "three lists" respectively on dialogue, cooperation and managing differences properly, as proposed by State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Jointly fighting COVID-19. This is the most pressing issue globally, and also a common concern of the international community. In the past, China and the United States had successful experience in jointly combating epidemics such as SARS and Ebola. The health sectors of the two countries formed a sound relationship of cooperation. The two sides should enhance exchanges and cooperation in areas such as quarantine and tracing measures, medication and vaccines. If the United States returns to the World Health Organization and joins the COVAX, China and the United States can cooperate in global vaccine distribution and epidemic prevention through multilateral frameworks, joining hands to help countries with weak health-care systems, which would be good news for the whole world.
Jointly stabilizing economic and trade relations. This is a prominent area of mutual benefit and win-win results, and there is an urgent need to break new ground for cooperation. President Xi Jinping said at the opening ceremony of the third CIIE that "our aim is to turn the China market into a market for the world, a market shared by all, and a market accessible to all." Apparently, China, with stable development and consistent opening-up, would bring opportunities to the world as well as to the United States. "Decoupling" with China is nothing but giving up on future development opportunities. The two sides should initiate economic policy coordination that connects China's new development paradigm with the U.S. post-pandemic economic recovery. The two sides should strengthen cooperation in fields such as information and communication, artificial intelligence, online education and telemedicine, jointly stabilize the markets, secure growth and safeguard people's wellbeing. The two sides should also ensure the smooth operation of the global industrial and supply chains, thus leading the recovery and development of the world economy.
Jointly tackling climate change. The Chinese and U.S. governments had cooperated to realize the adoption of the Paris Agreement, jointly leading other countries to slow down and adapt to climate change. At the general debate of the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September, President Xi Jinping put forth China's pledge to attain the CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. China and the United States have opportunities to strengthen cooperation and deepen exchanges in climate change. Promoting bilateral cooperation in this field will greatly benefit generations to come.
Jointly resuming people-to-people exchanges. Earlier, China and the United States saw an average of 14,000 visits a day, with one flight taking off or landing between the two countries every 17 minutes. A total of 50 pairs of sister provinces/states and 231 pairs of sister cities were forged between the two sides. More than 400,000 Chinese students once studied in the United States. These exchanges brought people closer and helped promote friendship. In the past few years, however, people-to-people exchanges have suffered grave disruption, with the number of U.S. visas for Chinese students falling 99 percent year on year from April to September this year. The two sides should resume normal people-to-people exchanges as soon as possible, and make new exchange plans involving think tanks, civil aviation and students, to consolidate the foundation of people-to-people bond in bilateral relations.
As China and the United States already had good cooperation on matters like non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the Iranian nuclear issue, the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, anti-terrorism and disaster relief, both sides may resume dialogue and cooperation on these important areas.
"Delicious soup is made by combining different ingredients. Good relationship of people of various positions features mutual learning and complementarity." In the post-pandemic era, both China and the United States need a pragmatic approach to roll up sleeves and get to work.
The South China Morning Post has an update on a really tragic mining accident in Shandong that has left 21 miners trapped for 11 days now, a truly terrible wait for their families and loved ones and right before the Chinese New Year holiday:
Chinese rescuers drilled deep into the ground on Thursday in an increasingly desperate bid to save 21 miners trapped for almost two weeks, with one confirmed dead and still no signs of life from over half of the missing workers, state media reported. Twenty-two workers were entombed hundreds of metres underground at the Hushan mine near Qixia in eastern China’s Shandong province after an explosion on January 10 sealed the entrance and cut off communications.
And finally…
The Indian Express explains why the state of Gujarat is renaming dragonfruit:
On August 6, Ram Kumar, additional principal chief conservator of forests (social forestry) in the Gujarat forest department, forwarded to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) a proposal on renaming the fruit Kamalam. This, Kumar wrote, would “boost awareness and expansion”, “and contribute to reducing our import dependence in line with ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’”.
Kamalam is also the name of the BJP headquarters in Koba in Gandhinagar, and the kamal — lotus — is the BJP’s election symbol. Rupani, however, said no politics was involved in the renaming. “Gujarat government has decided that dragon fruit is not a suitable word. Across the world it is known as dragon fruit and one thinks of China. So we have given the name Kamalam. It is a fruit like the lotus,” he said.
The Global Times chips in on Chinese online reactions:
Chinese and foreign netizens are mocking an Indian state government's "very unnecessary" and "over-sensitive" decision to rename the dragon fruit as the original name "is associated with China." A typically derisive comment said, "This is the only thing they [the government] are capable enough to do."
Chinese netizens also laughed at the move. Many said the Chinese dragon is quite a different thing from the Western one. Many simply commented with a "laugh to cry" emoji.
My favourite take:
Thank you for reading!