International Courant
For years, the Chinese language media has portrayed the US as an unfriendly nation looking for to comprise and weaken China on the world stage.
The US has been repeatedly portrayed in Chinese language media as a risk to world peace because of Washington’s insurance policies of arming Taiwan, sending navy support to Ukraine and supporting Israel’s battle on Gaza.
So when tales instantly appeared within the Chinese language media about ‘strengthening ties between China and the US’ and ‘the ties of friendship between Individuals and Chinese language’, it clearly didn’t go unnoticed.
Within the weeks earlier than the extremely anticipated Nov. 15 assembly between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese language President Xi Jinping on the APEC summit in San Francisco, Chinese language media softened their sharp rhetoric.
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Within the letter, Xi addressed China-US relations, pointing to a deep friendship between the 2 nations “that has handed the take a look at of blood and hearth.”
The Chinese language Communist Celebration-controlled Folks’s Each day, which known as the US a bellicose nation earlier this 12 months, promoted a set of articles commemorating the Flying Tigers the identical week Biden met Xi.
The fiftieth anniversary of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s go to to Beijing in 1973 additionally turned a subject of curiosity, as did Xi’s a number of journeys to the US, beginning along with his first go to in 1985, which he spent in Iowa, the place, it’s reported we’re instructed, “he cherished friendships with the American folks.”
Even the outspoken state-run International Occasions, which in an October editorial described the US as “stained with the blood of harmless civilians” in Gaza, known as for better cooperation between Beijing and Washington. It is a far cry from two months earlier, when the International Occasions described the US as “getting meaner and meaner” in its assaults on China.
China’s nationalist commentators have additionally adopted the media’s softening tone.
Commentator Hu Xijin, who as soon as known as for Chinese language airstrikes on Taiwan to “remove” US forces on the democratically dominated island, wrote in a current op-ed in regards to the want for expanded cooperation between China and the US.
Nationalist blogger Sima Nan, who as soon as described the US as a “rotten, crime-ridden place,” instantly claimed that he aimed to “promote pleasant Sino-American relations.”
The abrupt change in perspective on the US by Chinese language media and public figures can appear very complicated, mentioned Vicky Tseng, 34, who works in social media at an promoting firm in Shanghai.
“However it’s the Chinese language authorities that units the tone for the Chinese language media. So earlier than Xi met Biden, the administration clearly determined it was time for China to like America extra,” she instructed Al Jazeera.
President Joe Biden and Chinese language President Xi Jinping stroll by way of the gardens of the Filoli property in Woodside, California, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperative (APEC) convention on November 15, 2023 (Doug Mills/The New York Occasions by way of AP )
Alfred Wu, a scholar of public administration in China on the Nationwide College of Singapore, additionally mentioned it was the Chinese language Communist Celebration (CCP) led by President Xi that units the tone in China’s media panorama.
“There was a really clear pattern in direction of better state management over the media in China lately, leaving little or no room for media that aren’t affiliated with the federal government,” Wu instructed Al Jazeera.
In accordance with the advocacy group Reporters With out Borders, China ranked second from the underside of the world press freedom index in 2023, simply forward of last-place North Korea.
“The Folks’s Republic of China (PRC) is the world’s largest jail for journalists, and the regime is waging a marketing campaign of repression towards journalism and the fitting to info worldwide,” the group mentioned.
“These days, it does not actually matter what sort of media you’re,” mentioned Titus Chen, a researcher on Chinese language social media coverage at Nationwide Solar Yat-sen College in Taiwan.
“If you wish to survive in China’s media market, you must toe the occasion line,” he mentioned.
And the occasion’s new line, Chen mentioned, clearly sought to emphasise extra cordial parts of China-US ties forward of the Biden-Xi assembly.
“The change in media protection displays a renewed need for better stability in bilateral relations, particularly given the present financial scenario in China,” he mentioned.
China’s financial development has struggled to satisfy authorities targets, with youth unemployment reaching 21.3 p.c in June – earlier than authorities stopped publishing information – and China posting its first ever deficit within the July-September 2023 interval of direct overseas investments.
“China has tried to ship a sign to the US and the West by way of its propaganda that China is keen to cooperate on various points, hoping this can carry extra overseas funding,” Chen mentioned.
Softer tones most likely will not final lengthy
In accordance with Tseng, the promoting junior govt, the grim financial scenario has not been portrayed by Chinese language media as an element within the Biden-Xi assembly.
The International Occasions even describes US financial restrictions imposed on China as fueling breakthroughs in Chinese language chip expertise.
Xi’s oft-cited mantra on people-to-people exchanges and his championing of such exchanges, alongside along with his personal interactions with the American folks through the years, have been portrayed within the Chinese language media as having led to a profitable APEC summit.
It was additionally identified that Xi acquired a number of standing ovations at an APEC dinner with enterprise leaders and that the factors of cooperation Xi outlined had opened a “imaginative and prescient for the way forward for China-US relations.”
Even two weeks after the summit, the Folks’s Each day described Xi’s endorsement of people-to-people ties as an inspiration for each Individuals and Chinese language who will “generate extra constructive vitality for the wholesome improvement of China-US relations.”
In accordance with Wu, it was crucial for the Chinese language media to make Xi the centerpiece of the APEC summit.
“The underlying message is that Xi is a really succesful statesman (who) can negotiate with the US and lead China to a greater place,” he mentioned.
In accordance with observers, Chinese language media narratives that the US will proceed to maneuver in a extra constructive path sooner or later are unlikely.
“I believe the ambiance might rapidly grow to be unfriendly once more,” Tseng mentioned. “And I nonetheless discovered anti-American content material on Chinese language media in current weeks, so it by no means fully went away.”
Whereas the constructive ambiance appeared to outlive when Biden known as Xi a dictator on the finish of the APEC summit, the International Occasions launched a cartoon sketch the day after the assembly meant as an instance the hypocrisy in US overseas coverage.
China and the US nonetheless have elementary variations in overseas coverage, particularly on the subject of the South China Sea and Taiwan, and these variations can simply and rapidly bitter the temper, Wu mentioned.
Chen can be not optimistic that the US’s smooth strategy in Chinese language media will survive.
“A professional-Taiwan gesture from an American politician could possibly be all it takes to get the messaging again to the place it was earlier than,” he mentioned.
“And the day when that occurs might come prior to all of us count on.”
Why did Chinese language state media instantly pivot in direction of friendlier ties with the US? | Political information
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