A press release issued on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Communist Party of China on the morning of October 6 stated that “Premier Li Qiang of the State Council will attend the closing ceremony of the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou on October 8 and hold a welcome banquet and reception for foreign leaders who come to China to attend the closing ceremony. Bilateral activities.”
Some Taiwanese media believe that this shows that Li Qiang is taking over Xi Jinping’s “fighting” diplomacy. But some people think that there are only so many countries coming to the opening ceremony, let alone the closing ceremony. Therefore, this kind of lightless moment was left to Li Qiang.
This year’s Hangzhou Asian Games kicked off from September 23 to October 8.
On the evening of September 23, President Xi Jinping announced the opening of the Asian Games at the opening ceremony of the Hangzhou Asian Games. At noon that day, Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan held a grand banquet at the Xizi Hotel in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, to entertain foreign dignitaries attending the opening ceremony. In his speech, Xi Jinping said: China should use sports to promote peace and resist Cold War mentality and camp confrontation.
At a time of economic downturn, the Asian Games were held in a high-profile manner without competition from other countries, and special planes were sent to transport the leaders of Syria and East Timor who were unable to come to the games to add to the excitement. Most observers believe that the focus of various international events organized by the CCP is not on sports, but on showing off wealth and expanding political influence.
However, contrary to the expectations of the CCP, only 7 of the 45 member countries of the Asian Games attended the opening ceremony with government officials, and 4 other countries sent representatives from the royal family.
This is in sharp contrast to the presence of dignitaries from 80 countries at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, all political figures from Western countries were present, including US President Bush, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, French President Sarkozy, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, etc. The then British Prime Minister Brown attended the closing ceremony.
At the 2022 Winter Olympics, politicians from many Western countries announced that they would launch a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics due to the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights issues. Only Russian President Vladimir Putin, Polish President Andrzej Duda, Kazakhstan President Tokayev, King of Cambodia, President of Singapore, President of Kyrgyzstan, President of Turkmenistan, President of Uzbekistan, President of Egypt, Emir of Qatar, Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates, and President of Serbia , the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, the Prince of Monaco, the President of Argentina, the President of Ecuador, the Prime Minister of Mongolia, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, the Speaker of the National Assembly of South Korea, the Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan, and Princess Sirindhorn of Thailand attended the opening ceremony.
As for this year’s Asian Games, the scale will be even smaller.
It can be seen that the CCP’s circle of friends is shrinking, the CCP’s diplomacy is becoming more and more isolated, and the influence of the sports diplomacy that it has spent huge sums of money to create has also been significantly reduced.
Some netizens posted on Twitter: “The Hangzhou Asian Games, which wasted people and money and blocked residents to whitewash peace, once again proves that every time the CCP concentrates its efforts on big things, it is a suffering for the people. They are all examples of prosperity and decline. .”
However, while the CCP is “trying hard” to engage in home diplomacy, Xi Jinping was absent from this year’s G20 summit in India, and the United Nations General Assembly only sent Han Zheng, Vice Chairman of the CCP, to attend. This shows that Xi Jinping seems to be giving up comparing himself with the United States in certain circles and returning to the circle of friends he had in the Mao era.
2023-10-06 10:26:58
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