Belonging to the same generation as Xi Jinping, Han Zheng, 70, certainly does not have the same aura or the same authority. However, he is not a second knife. He was for a long time the mayor, then the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Shanghai, his hometown and the economic capital of the country. He served on the Standing Committee of the Politburo, the holy of holies of Chinese power. In March 2023, he was elevated to the vice-presidency of the People’s Republic, a ceremonial position which, depending on the circumstances, constitutes a march to the top or, on the contrary, as in the present case, a prestigious retirement.
A seasoned personal representative
In this capacity, Han Zheng plays the personal representatives of the Chinese president, in negotiations (on the climate, for example) and international forums (the UN General Assembly), or more solemn events like the coronation of Charles III in May 2023. He has developed diplomatic talents that are all the more useful as Xi Jinping travels less and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recently experienced convulsions with the dismissal of Minister Qin Gang and the return of his predecessor, the veteran Wang Yi.
China announces that Xi Jinping will not attend Trump’s inauguration, he will send his vice president
The Chinese leadership intends to flatter Donald Trump’s ego by honoring him with a higher-level presence than other important countries – Japan and India only send their foreign ministers. The method has its limits: Xi Jinping had hoped to seduce the American president, during his first term, by giving him a sumptuous and unprecedented welcome at the Forbidden City, the former imperial palace, which was not enough to prevent the outbreak of a trade war. But it is worth trying again, given that one of the hallmarks of the new presidential administration is its hostility to China. Son of Cuban exiles, the next Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has no sympathy for communist regimes and has never spared his criticism of Beijing.
-Conflicting signals
For Han Zheng, the company borders on a mission impossible, even though the stakes are enormous. China sells three times more to the United States every year than it buys from them, widening at their expense a gigantic trade deficit which represents the primary cause of the dispute between the two countries. Donald Trump intends to once again bring the iron to this place by threatening to impose taxes on Chinese imports of up to 65%. But, at the same time, he shows more conciliatory dispositions, in particular by expressing the desire to prevent the banning of the Chinese social network TikTok. In business circles in New York, we want to believe in appeasement, betting on a more reasonable and pragmatic American president than the one who was sworn in on January 20, 2017.
China: Xi Jinping wants a more “proactive” economic policy for 2025
