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Leading Chinese academic and cultural figures call for Sino-US ‘people power and friendship’
- Soft power push by Beijing sends delegation including former NBA star Yao Ming to New York ahead of likely meeting between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden
- Amid optimism, speakers concede bilateral relations have been frosty with little likelihood of quick turnaround
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Mark Magnierin New York
A delegation of Chinese academic, economic, cultural and sports figures called for “China-US people power and friendship” on Wednesday in a bid to reboot the nation’s wobbly soft power ahead of an increasingly likely meeting between President Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden.
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The effort to seed the ground for improved ties dovetails with a rare Xi statement at a gala dinner in New York the evening before in which the third-term president called for mutual progress and common prosperity with the United States.
“We try to create a more accurate perception,” said delegate member Da Wei, director of Tsinghua University’s Center for International Security and Strategy, on Wednesday. “But our perception is still so strong, an echo chamber in the two capitals. We view the other side as having evil intention. We view the other side as being unreasonable.
“But actually in dialogues like these past two days, most of us, no matter Chinese or American, we share at least 80 or 90 per cent commonalities rather than differences.”
China’s people-to-people initiative coincides with a flurry of apparent stage-setting in recent days. Top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi is scheduled to visit Washington this week, likely to finalise arrangements for Xi’s expected attendance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco in November. China has yet to officially confirm Xi’s arrival.
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