Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, a brutal communist tyrant currently engaging in genocide against multiple ethnic groups in East Turkistan, was front and center for this week’s G20 summit, taking a leadership position in the absence of interest in outgoing President Joe Biden.
Xi was front and center on Monday and Tuesday, holding one-on-one meetings with many G20 leaders and delivering an address to the summit promoting China’s predatory Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Xi positioned himself as the leader of the “Global South,” a term used generally for developing and impoverished states, despite China being located squarely in the Northern Hemisphere and possessing the second-largest economy on earth.
Xi’s influence was prominent in the joint declaration the G20 leaders issued on Tuesday demanding reforms to disempower the West at the United Nations, climate financing for “developing” states, and “common but differentiated responsibilities,” meaning restrictions on fossil fuels and power generation in the name of limiting emissions should not apply to “developing” or poorer states.
The declaration also avoided condemning key China ally Russia while calling for an end to its invasion of Ukraine, and similarly failed to mention the jihadist terrorist organization Hamas in addressing Israel’s war against the group. China has sided against Israel in the self-defense operations that followed Hamas’s October 7, 2023, siege of the country.
The G20 summit took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, concluding on Tuesday. Socialist Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who maintains friendly ties to China, had reportedly attempted to prioritize wealth redistribution and censorship at the summit but struggled to align the disparate member states with his vision, particularly as chatter about the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump reportedly made some members hesitant to embrace hardline leftist policies.
Xi delivered a speech on Monday to the G20 touting “high-quality Belt and Road cooperation” and urging the assembled to “oppose unilateralism and protectionism,” presumably in anticipation that Biden will be replaced at the summit next year by Trump. Both during his first presidential term and during his 2024 campaign, Trump advocated for policies to grow American manufacturing and make the United States less reliant on the Chinese communist economy for its goods, particularly sensitive products such as medicine, microchips, and others.
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“We need to improve global financial governance and build a world economy characterized by stability,” Xi lectured, adding later, “We need to improve global trade governance and build a world economy characterized by openness.”
“It is important to avoid politicizing economic issues, avoid fragmenting the global market, and avoid taking protectionist moves in the name of green and low-carbon development,” Xi demanded.
On the wars in Israel and Ukraine, Xi offered China’s usual vague call for parties to “stop fighting, end the war, and provide support for easing the humanitarian crisis.”
“We should follow the principles of no expansion of the battlefields, no escalation of hostilities and no fanning flames,” Xi asserted, without providing clarity on how to achieve those goals. Xi reiterated his call for the establishment of a state of Palestine in addressing Israel’s war against Hamas.
Xi also urged the world to embrace climate alarmism, but not at the expense of his nation, the world’s worst polluter by several metrics.
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“We should honor the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities,” he suggested, meaning not all countries have to take the same measures to protect the environment.
“Developed countries should provide developing countries with the necessary funding, technology and capacity-building support,” he added.
Xi also insisted that his country “has always been a member of the ‘Global South,’” no matter how developed or northerly it may be, and will be “a reliable and long-term partner of developing countries, and an activist and doer in support of global development.”
Asked to address Xi’s participation at the G20, the Chinese Foreign Ministry celebrated China as a “a doer and go-getter working for the cause of global development” ready to “go hand in hand with fellow developing countries toward modernization.” Spokesman Lin Jian described China as a role model for poor countries, insisting, “if China can make it, other developing countries can make it too. This is what China’s battle against poverty says to the world.”
Lin added that Xi called for improving “global governance” through the G20 and urged states to “strengthen global economic partnerships, and foster an open, inclusive, and nondiscriminatory environment for international economic cooperation.”
Entirely absent from Xi’s message at the G20 was any call for individual freedom or respect for human rights – notable because Xi did raise democracy and human rights in his one-on-one conversation with President Biden on Saturday. Xi described democracy and human rights together as a “red line” for China, meaning he would not discuss the atrocities his government regularly commits with America or any other country.
“The Taiwan question, democracy and human rights, China’s path and system, and China’s development right are four red lines for China. They must not be challenged. These are the most important guardrails and safety nets for China-US relations,” the state-run Global Times described Xi as telling Biden.
In remarks before their private meeting, Biden appeared satisfied with his relationship with Xi throughout his presidency.
“We haven’t always agreed, but our conversations have always been candid and always been frank. We have never kidded one another. We’ve been level with one another,” Biden told reporters. “And I think that’s vital. These conversations prevent miscalculations, and they ensure the competition between our two countries will not veer into conflict — be competition, not conflict.”
