Pay Attention to Xi Jinping's Sense of Crisis

 Pay Attention to Xi Jinping's Sense of Crisis

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

January 30, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

As the US-China trade and tech wars increasingly intensify, the Mainland is also facing new challenges at the political, economic, and social levels. Mainland President Xi Jinping and his leadership team are filled with a sense of crisis. A series of meetings revolves around one main axis, which is "seeking stability, seeking stability, and seeking stability," emphasizing political stability, strengthening the sense of peril, and making plans for the worst with the best preparations.

What makes Xi Jinping and his leadership team feel extremely uneasy is that US trade pressure on China has become increasingly greater, not only demanding that China make concessions on automobile tariff cuts, market accessibility, and intellectual property rights, but also demanding that Beijing’s “Made in China 2025” reduce its heat and speed; it at the same time demands to review the speed and scope of the Mainland’s reforms, nearly tantamount to being forced to sign "terms of surrender.”

At the same time as the US-China trade war, US President Trump has also launched a tech war against China. According to a news story carried by the New York Times, over the past year or so, the United States has secretly exerted pressure on its allies, demanding that they not use Huawei, ZTE and other Mainland communications industry products, and withdraw from R&D cooperation in 5G tech with Huawei.

Viewed from the various measures of the Trump government against the Mainland, simply saying that the United States pressures China probably does not suffice to describe the situation; it can only be said that the United States deliberately wants to dwarf China into a second-rate economic-trade and tech country. All these are undoubtedly the main reasons making Xi Jinping and his leadership team startled and extremely worried.

Since the 19^th National People’s Congress, Xi Jinping has concentrated powers in his hands, with potency the highest among world leaders. However, after reaching the zenith of power, various opposition forces, both domestic and external, have also arrived one after another. At the same time, as various provinces and cities engaged in frenetic construction, local debts quickly piled up; in the last quarter of 2018, both imports and exports declined, economic growth was not as expected, and the unemployment rate began to climb, which could possibly elicit social unrest.

At a time when the Mainland is facing extreme challenges, both domestic and external, the Tsai Ing-wen government should never let US laws friendly to Taiwan and unrealistic pledges of US government officials go to its head, believing that it could fulfill her grand strategy of "coalescing with the US to counter China," and engage in excessive, unnecessary cooperation with the US, challenging and even harming the core interests of Mainland China, which would, we are afraid, meet with Mainland China's counterattack, then it would be a strategy totally devoid of political wisdom. 

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