2023 Issue 43

As the California Governor travels to the PRC and meets with Xi Jinping to further California-PRC cooperation on climate issues, the Biden Administration and the Japanese Governments reject the coercion and aggression that PRC forces are using against the Philippines in the South China Sea. 

The ill-timed nature of Governor Newsom’s state-level diplomacy looks even worse given Xi Jinping’s warm embrace of indicted war criminal Vladimir Putin in Beijing last week before and the PRC’s tacit support for Iran and Hamas in their attacks against Israel.

Also experienced China-watchers Elizabeth Economy and Noah Barkin comment on the latest developments in U.S.-PRC relations and in EU-PRC relations respectively.

And, as if that wasn’t enough, this week Xi Jinping formally dismissed his hand-picked Defense Minister, General Li Shangfu, and stripped his hand-picked Foreign Minister, Qin Gang, of his last remaining title.  The PRC Government still refuses to provide details for why these two senior officials were purged.