China Briefing | How Beijing can reduce US-China tensions ahead of the Biden presidency

Name: RCEP: 15 Asia-Pacific countries sign world’s largest free-trade deal
Uploaded: 2020-11-28T01:30:07.000Z
Duration: 3 min 29 s
Description: RCEP: 15 Asia-Pacific countries sign world’s largest free-trade deal

To counter Biden’s plan to form a united front with America’s allies against China, Beijing has offered to join the CPTPP and conclude free-trade talks with the EU

It could also tone down ‘Wolf Warrior’ diplomacy, tolerate scrutiny on Xinjiang, present a Covid-19 vaccine plan and release the two Canadians it has detained

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Xi Jinping and Joe Biden during a 2013 meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Photo: Getty Images

Wang Xiangwei

Published: 9:30am, 28 Nov 2020Updated: 9:30am, 28 Nov 2020

US President Donald Trump may remain defiant in the lame-duck period of his presidency, but he seems more interested in playing golf than attending to international affairs, as the latest major international meetings in the past two weeks have shown.

By contrast, Chinese President Xi Jinping has stolen the show at the annual Apec (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) meetings of business executives and heads of state, and the G20 Leaders’ Summit.

At those meetings, via video links, Xi reaffirmed China’s commitment to embrace the world with open arms and create greater global recovery opportunities.

He called for enhanced policy communication and coordination to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, proposed a global QR code system to enable cross-border movement, and urged more efforts to restore global industrial and supply chains while cutting tariffs and reducing barriers.

“Openness enables a country to move forward, while seclusion holds it back,” Xinhua quoted him as telling the Apec meeting of business leaders.

Chinese state media has wasted no time in hailing Xi as a world champion on how to get to the right path and “delineate ways to tackle the most pressing challenges facing humanity”.

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RCEP: 15 Asia-Pacific countries sign world’s largest free-trade deal

While the praise may be fulsome and Xi’s promise of China’s further opening up an old familiar strain, his flurry of diplomatic activities is much more than lip service, as cynics tend to believe.