[Chinese President Xi Jinping had already abandoned the “hide your strength, bide your time” mantra espoused by former leader Deng Xiaoping. Now, with U.S. global leadership in retreat under President Trump, Xi seized on the distractions of the pandemic and the U.S. election to further tighten domestic societal controls and forcefully assert his will abroad — consequently escalating conflicts with the West.]
By David Crawshaw and Miriam Berger
Chinese President Xi Jinping had
already abandoned the “hide your strength, bide your time” mantra espoused by
former leader Deng Xiaoping. Now, with U.S. global leadership in retreat under
President Trump, Xi seized on the distractions of the pandemic and the U.S.
election to further tighten domestic societal controls and forcefully assert
his will abroad — consequently escalating conflicts with the West.
Here’s a look at some key
developments this year:
Taking control in Hong Kong
Hong Kong utterly transformed in
2020. In recent years, the city had become synonymous with its pro-democracy
protests. During the summer, China moved to tighten control of Hong Kong,
ending the city’s long-standing autonomy and imposing a feared security law
that has made almost any dissent punishable
by prison.
As 2021 nears, the city’s status as
a backbone of global business appears to be in jeopardy while an exodus is underway
of democracy
activists, in addition to regular
families. The fallout has not only hit at home: China’s crackdown on Hong Kong’s
freedoms also led the United States to impose
sanctions against Chinese officials and spurred Britain to open
its doors to Hong Kongers seeking refuge.
[Hong
Kong democracy fighters face a dire choice: Go abroad or go to jail]
Repressing Uighur Muslims
China’s campaign against Muslim
Uighurs intensified in 2020. Bolstered by the state’s high-tech
surveillance powers, China expanded its detention
camps and forced
labor in the western Xinjiang region, and increased repression of
other ethnic groups, including in Inner
Mongolia.
Amid growing alarm about the
abuses, Western attention is focusing on forced labor in supply
chains emanating from China. Beijing has in turn faced increasing
resistance in Europe, whose leaders were long regarded by some China
watchers as too passive about the Communist Party’s geopolitical intentions. At
the same time, Muslim nations — top recipients of Chinese loans and coronavirus
vaccine deals — have remained largely silent about the Uighurs’ treatment.
[China
is building vast new detention centers for Muslims in Xinjiang]
Retooling the economy
As both the first country hit by
the coronavirus and one of the earliest to bring it under control, China’s
economy began
to recover sooner than other major countries. Nationalistic state
media trumpeted the economic revival and the successful virus fight as evidence
of the superiority of China’s authoritarian system vs. the democratic West.
But economic realities remain far
less rosy. China’s vital export markets remain depressed, while growing bond
defaults among state-owned enterprises point to signs of financial
stress and looming trouble ahead. China is trying to address these risks
by dialing
back on state-backed industrial stimulus and refocusing the economy
under a “dual circulation” strategy centered on domestic demand and self-sufficiency —
but neither can be achieved quickly.
[What
the U.S. election means for China]
In 2021, China will also have to
contend with the new Biden administration and its own pledge to retool
China-U.S. economic relations.
Rising China-India tensions
A deadly
clash in June between Chinese and Indian forces in the Himalayas
escalated tensions between China and India. The deepening friction between the
two regional powers led India to draw closer to the United States, as well as
to its regional allies Japan and Australia through an emerging bloc known as
the Quad. India additionally blocked
dozens of Chinese-owned apps, including TikTok, inflicting hefty
losses on China’s tech sector. The dicey India-China relationship
remains poised for further problems in 2021.
Growing threats against Taiwan
In 2020 Xi and other Communist
Party leaders stepped up threats against Taiwan with a sharp rise in military
incursions into Taiwanese airspace and increasingly
menacing language about seizing control of the democratic island.
China also reinforced its territorial claims over the disputed South China Sea,
which the United States has said it rejects
outright.
Widening Washington-Beijing
tensions
Growing tensions with Washington
spilled into academia, science and media, with Beijing expelling
American journalists and the U.S. restricting visas for Chinese
students and Communist Party members. Trump, meanwhile, moved to ban WeChat and
TikTok in the United States.
[A
U.S.-China detente under Biden? Beijing isn’t betting on it.]
Suppressing domestic dissent
Domestically, Xi showed zero
tolerance for dissent in 2020.
[As
repression mounts, China under Xi Jinping feels increasingly like North Korea]
The year ends with a growing list
of detainees. Ren Zhiqiang, a tycoon who wrote an essay criticizing the Chinese
leader’s coronavirus response, was jailed
for 18 years. Xu Zhangrun, a Tsinghua University professor, was detained for
similar criticisms of pandemic secrecy. Cai Xia, a former professor at China’s
elite Central Party School who now lives in the United States, was expelled
from the Communist Party after it emerged in leaked audio that she
described Xi as a “mafia boss” who had killed his country.
In a case that made headlines
worldwide, Li Wenliang, a Chinese doctor silenced by police after he tried to
raise alarm about the novel coronavirus long before Chinese authorities
acknowledged its full threat, died of covid-19 in February.
Seizing the narrative
In the backdrop of 2020, China’s “wolf warrior diplomacy” further contributed to increasingly
unfavorable views of Beijing in many countries. Officials and state
media have repeatedly mocked the United States as a chaotic morass of
incompetence, violence and racial tension — a combative take bolstered by the
Trump administration’s incoherent response to the pandemic and penchant for
extreme rhetoric. Concurrently, China this year moved more aggressively to
punish countries that have resisted its pressure, notably
Australia, which it hit with import bans.
