China should be prepared in case relations with US get worse under Joe Biden, government adviser warns
- Former party school official Zheng Bijian tells conference Beijing must strengthen its military in case new administration does not see situation improve
- Another senior adviser, former Chongqing mayor Huang Qifan, urges president-elect to end tech war to help global recovery after Covid-19 pandemic
China should make plans in case relations with the US deteriorate further, including further steps to strengthen its military capabilities, a senior Chinese government adviser has warned.
Zheng Bijian, a former vice-president of the Central Party School, did not name the US during his speech to a conference on Friday, but repeatedly referred to the “hegenomic nation” and said it was too early to tell if tensions would ease once the new administration takes office.
“I will cite an old China saying, let’s listen to their words and watch their deeds, let’s see how the hegemonic nation will act,” Zheng, a long-time adviser on foreign policy, told the event.
He added that China would make long-term preparations for both outcomes, and said “of course, that includes the building of military capacity”.
Another senior government adviser, former Chongqing mayor Huang Qifan, told the event that China should take proactive steps in case the US rejoins the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Donald Trump abandoned in 2017.
On Friday, Chinese President Xi Jinping told the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit that Beijing was open to joining its replacement, the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.
Huang noted president-elect Joe Biden’s support for multilateralism and said China should be prepared for him to explore other trade deals that may challenge China’s interests.
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Huang also called on the Biden administration to end the tech war with China, saying it could help the global economic recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic.
“If the new US administration can meet China halfway and resume technological cooperation on the basis of mutual benefit, it is totally possible that new industries will emerge one after another,” Huang said.
“It will give impetus to a new round of technological revolution and it will make the global economic cake bigger and help the global economy to recover.
China has denied repeated US accusations that it is stealing a wide range of US technologies – ranging from coronavirus vaccines to quantum computers – and unfairly subsidising its tech firms.
Washington has also banned Chinese tech giants such as Huawei from buying American components on national security grounds.
But Huang said China would continue to work to become self-reliant in the hi-tech sector and produce the components it needs domestically. He argued this would actually give the rest of the world more options rather than having to rely on individual countries that could exploit their technological advantages.
Zheng did not name Donald Trump in his speech but criticised the final acts of “the politician of the outgoing administration”.
He accused him of blaming China for Covid-19 to “shift the blame for the enormous losses caused by his failure in handling the pandemic” and acting to protect his “selfish interests in the election” with policies such as support for Taiwan.
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Zheng was speaking a week after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Taiwan “has not been part of China” and argued that US policy had been based on this for more than three decades.
Pompeo, who has previously described the Chinese Communist Party as the “central threat of our times”, has been repeatedly denounced by Chinese officials and state media, while Beijing has accused the US of meddling in its internal affairs for criticising its behaviour in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.
Zheng also told the conference in Guangzhou, organised by the China Institute for Innovation and Development Strategy think tank, that Beijing should work to accelerate the maritime and land networks it is developing under the Belt and Road Initiative.
