Making sense of Biden's call with Xi

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Making sense of Biden's call with Xi

March 21, 2022

Stephen Collinson and Shelby Rose

Where does China now stand on Ukraine?

In US-China relations, actions are more important than often impenetrable words.

The world's most critical diplomatic relationship has long been choked by linguistic fog. Official statements bristle with jargon defining the choreography of how Beijing and Washington deal with one another. To have any idea what's going on, you need to brush up on the One China policy, the Three Joint Communiques, the Six Assurances and the Nine-dash line. So it's not surprising that there wasn't much clarity coming out of President Joe Biden's call with President Xi Jinping on Friday.

The US side noted that Biden was "direct" in laying out for China the consequences of supplying material support to Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Hint, hint: Chinese firms would face sanctions. As for whether the President made any progress on that issue, officials repeatedly directed reporters to China's comments. Thanks for nothing, since the statements from Beijing were characteristically opaque.

But the official Chinese readout of the call actually showed that what China cares about most is not Ukraine but Taiwan. Xi spoke at length about the issue and warned that some in the US were sending "very dangerous" signals to the democratic island -- an apparent reference to hawkish lawmakers who are demanding more overt US assurances that it would defend Taiwan.

At first glance, the Chinese readout is packed with platitudes about the importance of peace and stability. But optimists in the US government might have been encouraged by Xi's statement that he didn't want the situation in Ukraine "to come to this." A mild rebuke of Russian President Vladimir Putin and an implicit denial that the attack on Ukraine was cooked up during the Russian leader's Olympic visit to Beijing perhaps? You could read it that way. But over the weekend, Beijing's rhetoric was more critical of the West. Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned that China wouldn't be lectured by anyone about what to do -- in signs of irritation about calls for it to be "on the right side of history."

Still, for the US, the key issue is whether China honors what Washington says are Russia's requests for military and economic assistance to ease the impact of the Western effort to isolate Moscow and to drain its military of support. The smart money is on China doing what it always does -- ruthlessly pursing its own interests. So far, Xi's government has walked a fine line -- effectively blaming the West for the war but stopping short of giving Putin all the help he wants. That looks set to carry on.

For the US, the call was the first test in what will now become a long-term goal of US foreign policy -- ensuring that the new "no limits" friendship inaugurated by Xi and Putin last month never reaches full fruition.

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'Talking to Putin '

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is ready to talk to Putin, but there's little sign that the Russian leader is of a similar mind as atrocities directed at Ukrainian civilians mount.

"I'm ready for negotiations with him. I was ready for the last two years. And I think that without negotiations we cannot end this war," Zelensky told CNN's Fareed Zakaria on Sunday.

"I think that we have to use any format, any chance in order to have a possibility of negotiating, possibility of talking to Putin. But if these attempts fail, that would mean that this is a third World War," Zelensky added.

"We have always insisted on negotiations. We have always offered dialogue, offered solutions for peace," he said. "And I want everyone to hear me now, especially in Moscow. It's time to meet. Time to talk. It is time to restore territorial integrity and justice for Ukraine."

Of 115 Supreme Court justices, only three were people of color

While Biden wrestles with historic events on the world stage -- he heads to Europe this week on the most significant visit by a US President in more than 50 years -- his administration also hits a landmark at home.

The Senate Judiciary Committee begins confirmation hearings Monday on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination to the Supreme Court. Jackson would be the first Black woman to serve on the high court but would do nothing to weaken the strong conservative majority since she'd replace retiring liberal Justice Stephen Breyer.

Even Republican leaders expect Jackson to be confirmed given the narrow Democratic majority in the Senate. But her hearings will turn into one of the first major events of the midterm election year, although the horror pouring in from Ukraine might temper normally feverish attention on a such a hearing.

Republicans don't want to be seen as launching racial attacks on a Black nominee. But they intend to create an impression that Jackson is soft on crime -- focusing on one of her previous roles as a public defender. Public defenders are appointed to ensure that accused criminals who cannot afford their own lawyers still get their constitutional right to a fair trial. This all plays into a GOP campaign theme that Democrats are blinded by political correctness to a growing crime wave. The hearings also offer a grandstanding opportunity for Republican senators who want to excite conservative media and bank histrionic footage for use in future presidential campaign ads. Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, for example, has already made misleading claims that Jackson goes easy on child sex offenders.

Jackson's historic status, and the perennial implications of race in American politics, will hover over the hearing. Biden hailed her nomination as shattering a glass ceiling of prejudice given the long-time domination of White men on the Supreme Court. But some Republicans warn the racial criteria applied to his deliberations -- the President had vowed on the campaign trail to nominate a Black woman to the court -- raises the possibility that he ignored other, more qualified people. It's grossly disrespectful to Jackson's long record in the law to suggest she's getting the job just because she's Black. And the implication of the attack -- that there has never been a Black woman qualified for the court in more than 200 years -- is absurd.

Of the 115 justices in the history of the court, only three were people of color.

A dog named "Patron," who works with the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, has helped defuse nearly 90 explosive devices since the beginning of the war, according to Ukraine's Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security on Twitter. (Twitter/Stratcom Centre UA)

Thanks for reading.

On Monday, the US Senate Judiciary Committee holds hearings on President Joe Biden's nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. China will begin to divert 106 international flights scheduled to arrive in Shanghai due to an increase in Covid-19 cases. Severe storms are expected to hit the Central and Southeast US.