Xi & the Winter Games - Denisov on Putin's Visit
Here are the stories and pieces that I found noteworthy from the Wednesday, February 02, 2022, edition of the People’s Daily.
Page 1: Once again, it’s a really slow news day. I guess this is how it will remain till later this week, when we get the opening of the Olympics and engagements with the leaders who are attending.
Anyway, the front page basically has stories around the theme of the Winter Olympics. There’s a long piece about Xi’s leadership in the context of the Games. The idea is that Xi Jinping has been personally involved in the entire process from the very beginning. Or as this Xinhua English story put it:
“President Xi Jinping masterminded the grand plan, defined the strategic direction, and inspected construction sites. From the early bidding stage right through nearly seven years of preparations, President Xi has played an instrumental leadership role as he helps shape what many believe will be a historic Games.”
This, in a nutshell, is what the PD piece argues. In addition, I am highlighting an old quote from Xi used in the story. This underscores the importance of the Games going off well. Xi had said that:
The Beijing Winter Olympics “is a landmark event at an important historical juncture in China. It is an important opportunity to display the country’s image, promote its development and inspire national spirit…” 习近平总书记指出：“北京冬奥会是我国重要历史节点的重大标志性活动，是展现国家形象、促进国家发展、振奋民族精神的重要契机，对京津冀协同发展有着强有力的牵引作用.”
Another piece on the front page around the Winter Games theme broadly makes the point that the preparations for the Games shows the efficiency and ability of the Party leadership and the Party-state system. Xi is quoted to have said that the “preparations for the Winter Games demonstrates the institutional advantages of the Party’s leadership and the national system, and the system of pooling resources to accomplish major tasks.” 习近平总书记强调，筹办北京冬奥会、冬残奥会，再一次体现了党的领导和举国体制、集中力量办大事的制度优势.
Page 2: In yesterday’s edition, I’d covered a report about the new year propaganda effort by different outlets. On the second page today, there are two such reports from that series, if you’d like to get a glimpse of what kind of content is being covered.
Page 3: There’s an interview with the Russian ambassador to China, Andrey Denisov. He praises China’s Winter Olympics preparation, talks about Russian participation in the Games and Putin’s upcoming visit. He then outlines the high-points in China-Russia ties. These are:
Four meetings/conversations between Xi and Putin
Extension of the bilateral treaty of Good-neighbourliness, Friendship and Cooperation.
Bilateral trade hitting 147 billion US dollars in 2021
China-Russia “strategic coordination has become an important and positive factor in effectively resolving various international hotspot issues and maintaining international peace.”
Denisov dismisses any criticism of the Games saying that “whenever a country hosts a big event full of positive energy, there are always a small number of people who seek to disrupt it for narrow political interests. Russia faced similar problems when it hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. As time goes by, people will only remember the wonderful Games.” “每当有国家举办充满正能量的大型活动时，总有一小部分人为了狭隘的政治利益去搞破坏. 2014年俄罗斯举办索契冬奥会时，也遇到过类似问题。随着时间流逝，人们记得的只是那场精彩的冬奥盛会.”
Also note that the Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui spoke to Xinhua English too. He reiterates that “China-Russia relations are at their best time in history, and the planning and strategic guidance of the two presidents plays a pivotal role in advancing the relations.”
Other Stories:
China’s Zhang Jun’ statement at the UNSC on the Russia-Ukraine issue. This isn’t part of PD.
“What is urgently needed now is quiet diplomacy, not megaphone diplomacy. This is the view held by many members of the Council, who have also made relentless efforts towards this end. Regrettably, the US did not accept such a constructive proposal. At a time when dialogue and negotiations are underway, and concrete progress has yet to be made, the holding of such an open meeting by the Council is clearly not conducive to creating a favorable environment for dialogue and negotiations, nor is it conducive to defusing the tensions. China once again calls on all parties concerned to remain calm, not to do anything to aggravate tensions or hype up the crisis, and to properly resolve their differences through consultations on an equal footing on the basis of mutual respect and fully taking into account each other's legitimate security concerns.”
China's position on Ukraine is consistent. To resolve this issue, we still need to return to the original point of implementing the new Minsk agreement. This agreement, endorsed by the Security Council in its Resolution 2202, is a binding foundational political document recognized by all parties and should be effectively implemented. China supports all efforts in line with the direction and spirit of this agreement, and hopes that all parties concerned will show their positive willingness to implement the new Minsk agreement, resolve their differences arising from the implementation of the agreement through consultations, and earnestly promote the implementation of the new Minsk agreement.
The expansion of NATO is a problem difficult to circumvent in handling the current tension. NATO is the product of the Cold War, and NATO expansion epitomizes bloc politics. We believe that the security of one country should not be achieved at the expense of the security of other countries. Still less should regional security rely on strengthening or even expanding military blocs. Today in the 21st century, all parties should completely abandon the Cold War mentality and come up with a balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism through negotiations, with Russia's legitimate security concerns being taken seriously and addressed.