China was pretty quick to congratulate President Biden after he was anointed by the media. What was interesting about it was the admission that those communications came across a “back channel” into the Biden team.
China and the United States have revived stalled backchannel diplomacy, seeking to reset their stormy relationship in the wake of the US presidential election.
The semi-official communication channel – often conducted through former officials, think tanks and business leaders – has traditionally been an important conduit for the two sides to exchange candid views and float ideas before more formal contacts.
Such communication had stopped in recent months as the relationship went into deep freeze, a Chinese government adviser told the South China Morning Post.
So there is an established communication channel that is hidden from view. To me that information isn’t so surprising. Leaders would probably like to make sure that they are on the same page before springing surprising information on the world. What I do find surprising is the communications babble that has been in the open. They seem petty, like they are taking pot shots at each other.
Simple Misdirection
A quick look at the Global Times website, which is a Chinese government mouthpiece, has a few headlines that would probably at least cause a headshake or two. A couple of examples just from today: “China-less supply chain US’ wishful thinking: Global Times editorial”, and “The US committed genocide against Native Americans, China won’t do the same.” And from our own government we get the readout from the official state call to Xi:
President Biden underscored his fundamental concerns about Beijing’s coercive and unfair economic practices, crackdown in Hong Kong, human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and increasingly assertive actions in the region, including toward Taiwan.
None of these are fighting words, that is true. But they seem more like chaff than anything else. It is just white noise with no real implications of anything. So we are to believe that there is nothing of more import going on between the two countries than sniping with BB guns?
What is Really Happening?
What if we look for a bigger picture though? Over at the National Pulse there are a couple of interesting headlines:
REVEALED: DC Mayor Bowser & Cabinet Picks Met With Top ‘Influence’ Arm Of Chinese Communist Party.
The second headline may be the cause of the first. The Mayor of DC would be a pretty good channel for information if she had connections. It turns out that DC has teamed up with Beijing to be sister cities. Specifically though, who are the people that facilitate this sisterhood? A group called the United Front:
The United Front functions as China’s premier influence and propaganda organization, raising flags with the U.S. government’s Economic and Security Review Commission.
It seeks to “co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling Chinese Communist Party” and coerce American leaders “to take actions or adopt positions supportive of Beijing’s preferred policies.”
What’s more, the State Department has described the group as seeking to “directly and malignly influence” U.S. state and local leaders.
There is a lot more going on than we are being led to believe. I can’t imagine that with the ties that the Bidens have with the communists that they aren’t coordinating all kinds of things behind the curtain. I also think that it probably isn’t all on the up and up. Sure wish we had some intrepid reporters on the scene in DC that can start digging through dumpsters. Whatever is happening is going to end up fleecing the rest of us.