Biden’s battle with China is getting tough for US billionaires

There have been calls for the United States to launch a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Winter Olympics because of China’s record on human rights, including its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in China. Hong Kong and for the Uighur Muslim minority. But the pressure increased last month after the tennis star Peng Shuai accused a top Chinese official of sexual assault and immediately disappeared from the public eye, sparking an international outcry and concern for the safety of the Olympian champion. and Wimbledon. “That’s something we’re looking at,” Joe Biden told reporters in November.

Now, he is following the alert. The Biden administration is expected this week to announce that no US officials will be sent to matches in Beijing in February, to protest China’s behaviour. American athletes are still expected to compete. But no government officials attended, angering Beijing, which has promised “resolute countermeasures” against the snob. “The US should stop politicizing sports and hyping up the so-called ‘diplomatic boycott’ so as not to affect China-US dialogue and cooperation in important areas,” said a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry. Zhao Lijian said Monday, according to CNN.

Biden almost met Xi Jinping last month to discuss relations between the world’s two largest economies, in which he “raised concerns” about “China’s activities in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, as well as human rights in the region.” wider scope”. It was description considered a “healthy debate” by a senior administration official, but it is unlikely to have much impact on China’s stance or the state of play between Beijing and Washington. Now, with a diplomatic boycott expected to be implemented, China shows that those talks can be called off altogether. Zhao says: according to NBC News, “And a serious insult to the 1.4 billion Chinese people.”

The coverage of the Olympics comes amid simmering tensions between the US and China. Who is Xi? squeeze his power as he prepares for a third term, seems to be facing more scrutiny — not just from outside his home country, but inside it—Through Peng’s assault allegations against the former deputy prime minister Zhang Gaoli and his party’s efforts to stem the scandal. Meanwhile, political and industrial leaders in the United States have been trying—and often have difficulty—To balance economic and strategic interests in China with due regard for human rights. Founder of Bridgewater Ray Dalio recently sorry for comparing China’s approach to human rights with that of a “strict parent”, one comment was reported be censured by the company’s CEO himself during a call to an employee. Dalio wrote on LinkedIn that “I do not mean to convey that human rights are not important. I tried to explain what a Chinese leader told me about how they think about governing. “

The fact that Dalio and other US billionaires have global interests, could lose a lot if US-China relations continue to deteriorate. Follow with Axios, the US market could fall by as much as $2 trillion if leading Chinese companies delist the US stock market, like car-sharing app Didi, under pressure from the Chinese government, announced it will do at the beginning of this month. And things don’t seem likely to get any brighter any time soon. Biden – who is struggling in the US who has made defending democracy a key tenet of his presidency – is hosting a “Summit for Democracy” this week. China, an autocratic state, was not invited, and was furious with the two-day meeting, especially over the involvement of Taiwan, which Beijing has vowed to control—perhaps by force).

China’s ruling party beat Biden and US in summit lead, with officials call American democracy is a “disaster” that “will surely fail”. The summit is “set up to be a joke,” Tian Peiyan, Deputy Director of the Policy Research Office of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, speak in Beijing on Saturday, “and will not be popular. White House press secretary Jen Psaki speak last week in a press conference, responding to criticism of the conference by China and Russia. “It’s not something we’re going to apologize for.”

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