Under Xi Jinping’s watch, China now a global loner
A Commentary
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, September 24: After two and a half years, Xi Jinping stepped out of China to smell the air at Samarkand, Tajikistan and found that the world has changed substantially.
Leaders of the Central Asian nations were cold to Xi and his ‘No limits friend’ Vladimir Putin, the Russian President. They saw Xi as an expansionist, who was not trusted by leaders of any democratic nations.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had taken Xi on a ‘swing’ diplomacy in Mammallapuram, Tamil Nadu in 2017 looked upon Xi as an untouchable, finding him not worthy of even a handshake.
China backed Putin’s war in Ukraine, and the western world, including Europe and the US, have no appetite to forgive Xi for helping Russia for plunging the world into recession at a time when the countries where only recovering from the debilitating impact of Covid-19, besides killing and maiming several thousands of innocents in Ukraine.
China’s economic success laid in being the global factory. Now, the buzzword of diversified, resilient and reliable global supply chain, as espoused by G7 and Quad countries. The import of this is simple that the world wants to shut down that factory in China.
From South China Sea to Eastern Ladakh, countries have been victims of Chinese expansionism through ‘Salami slicing’. There is no neighbour of China who trusts China.
The ideological mentor of the ruling political party in India, the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS), has run campaigns for several months against Chinese goods on the basis of arguments, which essentially portray China as an ungrateful nation, who is an aggressor.
Cold response to Xi’s bid to gain global endorsement to ‘One China Policy’ has also sent jitters in Beijing. The Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi was pleading in Dhaka, Bangladesh for an endorsement of ‘One China Policy’ to which he witnessed a cold ‘ok’.
From Sri Lanka to Pakistan, from Africa to Latin America, not less than 60 countries are eager for ways to throw the yokes of the economic slavery of China after being trapped in the debt trap. The Chinese pliable Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had to flee from his country after a popular revolt.
Even in Pakistan, which is known to be an ‘all weather friend’, there is a growing hatred for China on account of the reported exploitation of the girls and women, besides the economic colonization of the Islamic country.
Now that the rumour of the ouster of Xi rages on internet, it only shows that China under his watch is a loner.
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