Faced with declining foreign investment at home, China is trying to soften its image in the United States and Europe and build friendly relations with some of its neighbors. One Communist Party official played an unusually prominent role in changing the tone.
China is not trying to rewrite the U.S.-led world order, he told an audience of academics and businessmen in New York. He said in Paris that China’s modernization will benefit Europe and the world. In Beijing, he told regional rival India’s ambassador that China wanted relations to return to a “healthy and stable” track.
The official, Liu Jianchao, heads the Communist Party’s foreign affairs department, which promotes the party’s ideology and influence overseas. However, his latest involvement suggests to analysts that he is auditioning for the role of China’s next foreign minister.
For Beijing, appointing a new foreign minister during the legislative session as early as March will help stabilize the country’s diplomatic apparatus after dramatic changes last year.
In July, the party abruptly ousted then-Foreign Minister Qin Gang amid speculation that he had a romantic relationship that could threaten national security. Qin’s predecessor, Wang Yi, was reappointed to the post. Mr. Wang is also the head of the party’s foreign affairs committee, a position normally held by a different person than the foreign minister.
Liu’s appointment is at least in tone, if not in substance, part of the provocative “wolf warrior” diplomacy that has come to symbolize China’s assertiveness under its supreme leader, Xi Jinping. This would signal a departure from the
Mr. Liu, who studied fluent English for a short time at Oxford University, has a knack for defending Beijing’s most passionate positions, such as China’s claim to the autonomous island of Taiwan, without becoming vitriolic. Mr. Liu rose to prominence as the leader of a controversial campaign called “Operation Fox Hunt” to bring back corrupt businessmen and officials from abroad and is seen as a reliable party supporter.
Many people who have met with Mr. Liu say he is more informal and charming than other Chinese officials, and seems willing to go off-script.
“Liu is an experienced diplomat who brings to the dialogue the relaxed confidence of a party official, something lacking in most Chinese foreign ministry officials who cautiously advocate the party line.” said Danny Russell, Asia Society vice president of policy. The institute and the former U.S. assistant secretary of state met with Liu at a meeting hosted by the Asia Society, a research group, in New York.
At a separate event in New York, Liu downplayed the severity of China’s economic slowdown and defended China-Moscow relations, calling for China to not only change the current international order but also create a new one. He claimed to be a peaceful nation with no interest in anything.
“We are among the architects of the current world order, and we have benefited from it,” he said in a speech hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations.
Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington, said this underestimated China’s position. China supports only some aspects of the world order, such as permanent membership on the United Nations Security Council, but opposes other aspects, such as US-led NATO, that it sees as challenges.
Still, Son said it was important that senior Chinese officials chose to emphasize Beijing’s intentions regarding world order, as Beijing “aims to lower the tempo and temperature” of relations with the United States. Ta.
Liu rose through the ranks at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, first as an interpreter and then as a press secretary, and rose to fame working with foreign media during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. After that, he served as Ambassador to the Philippines and Ambassador to Indonesia.
In 2015, Mr. Liu was assigned the task of hunting overseas fugitives as vice-minister of the Central Discipline Inspection Commission, a secretive and powerful anti-corruption body within the Party.
In that role, Mr. Liu showcased his negotiation skills, recovered large sums of fugitive money, and worked with people such as Chinese businessman and billionaire Lai Changxing, who fled to Canada to escape charges of running a smuggling ring. A famous fugitive was captured. Mr. Lai was convicted and is currently serving a life sentence. Human rights groups describe the fox-hunting movement as a form of transnational repression.
In 2017, Mr. Liu was appointed as the head of anti-corruption in the coastal province of Zhejiang, where Mr. Xi once served as party leader, reinforcing the party’s credentials. He was appointed deputy director of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission Secretariat, a senior party office created in 2018 by Mr. Xi to further strengthen the party’s control over China’s international relations strategy.
During his decade in power, Mr. Xi has pushed to expand his party’s control over China’s vast bureaucracy and society. At the 2017 Party Congress, Xi said, “East, west, south, north, center, the Party will lead everything.”
That change was again emphasized when Liu was appointed to his current position as head of international liaison in 2022. The ministry has traditionally been responsible for maintaining close ties with communist parties in other countries, such as North Korea and Vietnam. Normal diplomacy between countries was left to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Liu broke those norms by meeting with foreign ministers from around the world, giving his party access to diplomatic back channels that are rarely made public. Liu met with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken while in the United States in January, but this is believed to be the first time the director of international liaison has met with a secretary of state.
Relations between China and the United States have stabilized following the summit meeting between Mr. Xi and President Biden in the suburbs of San Francisco in November. But tensions could flare up again over a number of unresolved disputes, including the status of Taiwan and limits on technology exports to China.
In the UK, Mr. Liu expressed his determination to resolutely protect China’s interests. At a panel discussion in Britain last summer, Liu was asked about “wolf warrior” diplomacy. He responded in his usual friendly manner, explaining that China wants to make friends all over the world. But he warned: “When China is under pressure and when China’s policies are under pressure, we will show a fighting spirit.”
olivia wang Contributed to the report.