The South China Morning Post (December 23) referred to an article by Politburo member Yang Jiechi's
younger brother and former president of the Shanghai Institute of International Studies Yang Jiemian in The
Paper. In the article, Yang Jiemian said China’s US strategy is “confrontational where it must be and
collaborative when it can be” and that China should make better use of the US factor in its burgeoning ties
with Moscow while maintaining “a sense of crisis” about the limits of its own influence. Defending China’s
hawkish stance on the US, however, he cautioned about a possible deterioration in Beijing’s ties with Europe
in the coming months. He admitted too that, despite warming political and economic ties, China and Russia did not always see eye to eye: “Of course there are problems. Even brothers will have their own problems,
not to mention [Russia] is our neighbour.” “It is also clear that China and Russia are not exactly in the same
position on specific foreign policy issues. But we need to bear in mind that those are a secondary aspect of
Sino-Russian ties.” While Yang Jiemian described Russia’s turn towards the East, especially China, as “a
qualitative change” in President Vladimir Putin’s diplomacy, he said Beijing must remain on the alert and
“We cannot afford to completely abandon the sense of crisis. [Communist Party] General Secretary Xi
Jinping said we cannot make subversive mistakes on key issues. The same goes for Sino-Russian relations.”
With reference to China’s diplomatic strategy in Europe, he described the European Union as one of the four
pillars of global affairs, along with China, Russia, and the US, but cautioned that with Angela Merkel's
departure “it would be unrealistic to expect Sino-German relations to remain the same.” He added “Europe
is an ally of the US and they share similar ideals and objectives. They have differences, but only up to a
point.” In another article published last month on the website of his Shanghai-based think tank, Yang
cautioned that Beijing should take into account Russia’s vigilance towards China’s expansion of its influence
in Eurasia, and remain alert about Washington’s attempts to split China and Russia and expand its IndoPacific strategy. The South China Morning Post referred to another article by Yuan Peng, President of the
China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), in the Guangming Daily. In the article he
painted a bleak picture of Sino-Us relations and said choosing China as an enemy would be “the biggest
mistake in US grand strategy”. Yuan Peng wrote “Biden has repeatedly declared that the US is not engaged
in a ‘new cold war’ with China, but China still feels the chills all the time.” It mentioned also that former
Chinese Ambassador to Washington Cui Tiankai has also warned that “the US will inevitably try every
possible means and spare no effort, even without a bottom line, to suppress, contain, divide and besiege
China.”
Separately, Caixin (December 22) said China’s diplomatic moves in 2021 have centered on building up its
defensive line against hawkish diplomatic encirclement by the West, mainly the United States, over issues
such as Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan and tracing the origins of Covid-19.
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