United States President Joe Biden meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ week in Woodside, California, on November 15, 2023. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

Though Xi Jinping labels his summits as “strategic dialogues,” the Chinese Communist Party often uses these meetings to salvage its domestic credibility, promote its global vision, and hoodwink world leaders.

Read Hudson China Center Director Miles Yu’s latest article in The Hill to learn more about the real aims of CCP diplomacy.

Key Insights

1. Xi Jinping seeks to send the message to his caged people that their supreme leader is respected, even revered, on the global stage.

Xi’s San Francisco rendezvous could allow him to promote his own domestic image as a global guarantor of stability. Unlike Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, who ruled when China was less advanced economically, militarily, and technologically, Xi has promoted himself as a world leader, positioning himself as the global head of a “community of common destiny for all mankind.” He no doubt views an international forum such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit as a golden opportunity for the CCP’s self-promotion.

2. Xi wishes to demoralize America’s major allies in the Indo-Pacific.

US treaty allies—such as the Philippines, Japan, and South Korea, as well as India, Vietnam, and Taiwan—are harassed and intimidated by the CCP’s modernized military on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis. By hobnobbing in San Francisco with the president of the United States—the only nation capable of seriously countering Chinese aggression—Xi aims to belittle America’s allies and degrade their will to resist.

3. American leaders seek specific and immediate results, but CCP leaders deal with their adversaries on a doctrinal and strategic level, evincing little care for concrete actions.

Xi Jinping is coming to this week’s summit not to discuss specific issues, but to advance his global vision in accordance with the policies of the Chinese Communist Party. Washington should see China’s approach for what it is. Instead of allowing Xi to use yet another summit to promote the CCP’s agenda, the Biden administration should approach this week’s gathering with an understanding of how Xi aims to use it, and with realistic expectations about America’s ability to change China’s authoritarian regime.

Quotes may be edited for clarity and length. 

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