Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) held back-to-back calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump this week, which analysts said was rare and significant as Beijing positions itself as a stable global power.
Xi’s video call with Putin on Wednesday afternoon was followed just hours later by a phone call with Trump.
Xi and Putin spoke for 1.5 hours, the Kremlin’s foreign policy aide said, while Trump said they had a “long and thorough” conversation.
Photo: Xinhua News Agency via AP
“It does demonstrate that Xi can hold court and easily pick up the phone to speak with the two ‘strong’ leaders of the world,” Nanyang Technological University associate professor Dylan Loh (駱明輝) said.
Russia and the US are two of the “most consequential” countries to China, Loh said, adding that the timing could have been “a simple scheduling issue.”
Trump said he and Xi discussed trade, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and Iran.
China had committed to increasing soybean purchases from the US to 20 million tonnes in the current season, he added.
Loh said that the call confirmed that “in spite of what’s happened around the world, there is going to be a short-term tactical stabilization of US-China relations.”
However, Xi warned Washington to exercise caution in arms sales to Taiwan.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Chen Ming-chi (陳明祺) said, “we don’t worry too much about this whole telephone communication.”
“In fact, we believe that it will contribute to stabilize the situation,” he said.
Meanwhile, Xi and Putin hailed the deepening of Chinese-Russian ties as they try to present a united front against the West.
The two discussed their “opinions” on the US, and “special attention was given to the tense situation in Iran,” the Kremlin said.
Xi is seeking to position himself as equidistant from Putin and Trump, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies assistant professor Benjamin Ho (何子恩) said.
“China is trying to seek international maneuver space to ensure that whatever happens globally, it does not get fenced into a corner,” he said.
Domestically, China is reeling from a corruption probe into Zhang Youxia (張又俠), a top military general in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, which sent shockwaves through defense observers.
Analysts said that while Zhang’s investigation would likely not have been discussed with Putin and Trump, the timing of the calls could be a way for Xi to project confidence domestically.
Faced with uncertain and fragile domestic conditions, the “two-timing” calls were “probably for domestic posturing to demonstrate Xi’s political standing in the global theater,” Ho said.
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
DELAYED BUT DETERMINED: The president’s visit highlights Taiwan’s right to international engagement amid regional pressure from China President Willaim Lai (賴清德) yesterday arrived in Eswatini, more than a week after his planned visit to Taiwan’s sole African ally was suspended because of revoked overflight permits. “The visit, originally scheduled for April 22, was postponed due to unforeseen external factors,” Lai wrote on social media. “After several days of careful arrangements by our diplomatic and national security teams, we successfully arrived today.” Lai said he looked forward to further deepening Taiwan-Eswatini relations through closer cooperation in the economy, agriculture, culture and education, as well as advancing the nation’s international partnerships. The president was initially scheduled to arrive in time to celebrate
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) yesterday said the US faced a choice between an “impossible” military operation or a “bad deal” with Tehran, after US President Donald Trump disparaged Iran’s latest peace proposal. Negotiations between the two countries have been deadlocked since a ceasefire came into effect on April 8, with only one round of direct peace talks held so far. Iran’s Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported that Tehran had submitted a 14-point proposal to mediator Pakistan, but Trump was quick to cast doubt on it. “I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but
RSS