Senior Fellow Miles Yu reacts to our very own 91 colleague Nikki Haley’s speech in Taiwan last week, which urged the United States to do more to elevate Taiwan on the international stage. But how? Next he details the dangerous trend of economic nationalism under the Chinese Communist Party in light of an Olympic medalist buying an iPhone instead of a Chinese-made phone. Lastly, he addresses the 120th birthday of Deng Xiaoping and what his legacy means for Xi Jinping’s leadership today.
China Insider is a weekly podcast project from 91 Institute’s China Center, hosted by Miles Yu, who provides weekly news that mainstream American outlets often miss, as well as in-depth commentary and analysis on the China challenge and the free world’s future.
Episode Transcript
This transcription is automatically generated and edited lightly for accuracy. Please excuse any errors.
Miles Yu:
Welcome to China Insider, a podcast from the 91 Institute's China Center. I am Miles Yu, senior fellow and director of the China Center. Join me each week for our analysis of the major events concerning China, the China threat, and their implications to the US and beyond.
Phil Hegseth:
Today is Tuesday, August 27th, and we've got our usual lineup of three world events for Miles to break down. First is news from our very own 91 colleague, Nikki Haley, who delivered a speech in Taipei last week, urging the US to do more to elevate Taiwan on the international stage. But how? Second, we track yet another storyline from the Paris Olympics as a Chinese diver is facing blowback on Chinese social media for, get this, buying her mom an iPhone. Miles Explains how this is another example of economic nationalism in the CCP’s China. And we wrap today with the CCP’s hoopla around the 120th birthday of Deng Xiaoping and what his legacy means for Xi Jinping today. Miles, great to see you.
Miles Yu:
Phil. Nice to see you again.
Phil Hegseth:
I'm all rested up from vacation, so I'm ready to go. We'll start with actually one of your colleagues, Walter P. Stern Chair, Nikki Haley, at 91. Last week she was in Taipei and she delivered a speech and called for more international backing for Taiwan, international presence for them and just general pushback against mainland China. So I know you weren't there for it. You've been in Taipei many times, but could you just kind of sum up the speech? Was it important? Did it say what you would want to be said? And are there things that are actionable from it?
Miles Yu:
Well, Nikki Haley is a tremendous politician, and she was America's top diplomatic to the United Nations during the Trump administration while I was working for her boss Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the State Department. So we had some collaboration and she absolutely represented the best of the United States in the international arena. Now, Nikki Haley went to Taiwan and gave a great speech last week at the forum there hosted by the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry. In that speech, she met headlines by calling for more international space for Taiwan and Taiwanese people needs representation at the international arena. She further called for United Nations to consider Taiwan status internationally. So I think it was a very, very well done speech and obviously 91 is very proud of her for making that speech. And we, as a matter of fact, in our social media outlets, we promoted her speech quite a bit.
Phil Hegseth:
I saw that the main takeaway or actionable item was calling for Taiwan to become a full member of the un. Even that's obviously not, that's blocked by China right now and blocked by China for Taiwan to be in any kind of international organization. But is that a new call? Is that a familiar call? What's your reaction to that?
Miles Yu:
I think she stopped short of calling for membership of Taiwan's representation at the UN. What she said was the UN should revisit the issue of Taiwan's representation. Okay. So I think that's a very, very positive step. First step.
Phil Hegseth:
Okay. So what would the next step be? Or is there anybody else who has made similar calls that we can reference for comparison?
Miles Yu:
Oh yeah, yeah. Secretary Mike Pompeo has been the only senior US official who had publicly called for American diplomatic recognition of Taiwan on the sovereign and independent states. He made this headline two years ago when he and I went to Taiwan together. And when he spoke at the Prospect Foundation in that speech, for the first time ever since 1972, a US senior official openly said that Taiwan deserves Americans recognition. And just a few months ago, the day after the inauguration of President Lai Ching Te in Taiwan, Secretary Pompeo also made a speech the day after inauguration on May 21st, 2024. I was there when he delivered this speech to the Formosa Republican Association, Mike Pompeo. Specifically elaborate why this is such an important issue for the United States government to recognize Taiwan as a sovereign and independent country.
Phil Hegseth:
Could you get a little more specific on what his recommendations are and what steps could be taken, concrete steps that could be taken on the US and to support Taiwan's integration onto the world stage?
Miles Yu:
Lemme just actually, instead of the paraphrasing what Mike Pompeo said in May, let me just read a few paragraphs to see exactly what he said. Yeah, great. So in that May 21st speech in Taipei, secretary Pompeo said, I quote, “it is time for the United States to recognize Taiwan as the sovereign and independent country. It so clearly is this is not just a diplomatic gesture, it is a recognition of reality. It stands for justice and a stride towards global stability. The context of the three communiques upon which US-China regulations were originally predicated has evolved. The primary issue at hand was the representation of China, a competition in which the People's Republic of China was deemed the legitimate representative. However, Taiwan has long ceased its competition with the PRC over this claim since the late 1990s. Under presently Li Teng-hui Taiwan has not only moved away from this contest, but has also forged its own identity, an identity overwhelmingly endorsed by its people. Today, a resounding majority of Taiwanese identify themselves solely with Taiwan, not China.”
And of course, then Secretary Pompeo talked about why the US government should really recognize Taiwan as sovereign and independent country. The call for Taiwan's diplomatic recognition by the United States is thus a call to affirm this existing reality. Taiwan governed itself democratically, it controls its territory, engages in international trade, and more importantly, it does so as a separate entity from the people's Republic China. None of Taiwan's territory is under the PRC’s sovereign or administrative control. To suggest otherwise is not only misleading, but flies in the face of the observable facts. This is a very important announcement by a US senior official. And Secretary Pompeo concludes his speech with this paragraph, which I think is very, very poignant. “Recognizing Taiwan is not merely a policy adjustment. It is a moral imperative, a strategic necessity and a rightful acknowledgement of the democratic processes that define a true sovereign state.
It is time for the United States to lead boldly, act justly and recognize Taiwan as the independent and sovereign nation it truly is.” So those are very powerful words coming from the mouth of microphone. Very clear, very clear and very, very important. And he is not just saying this as a political campaign slogan or something just to make China mad. No, he's very cool and rational to lay out the reasons why. And there is some kind of echo within even the Biden administration. If you look at the statements by the current administration, the Biden administration, as all previous administrations have said, do not recognize the Chinese claim that the UN resolution 2758, as China always said, has solved the representation issue of Taiwan. It only solved one issue, one issue only, that is, the representation of China, people's Republic, China and the UN and not Taiwan.
Phil Hegseth:
So if a US administration were to act on Pompeo's words here, what would be the first concrete step, whether it's legislative or international diplomacy, what would be the first concrete step that we take?
Miles Yu:
I would advise that the United States should inform China that we will continue to recognize you, Beijing, as the legitimate government of China. But we are also going to recognize the government in Taipei as the legitimate government of Taiwan or Republic of China in Taiwan, what we call it. This is just a recognition of reality. Not only is the recognition of reality, but also it's a recognition of the moral obligation of the United States as the leading part of the world to recognize the reality, to recognize the legitimate core for sovereignty of the people in Taiwan. Now, if we defend the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, we should do the same for Taiwan. The whole purpose of defeating Russia in Ukraine is to defeat Russia's argument. It's a logic of aggression by Moscow's claim that Ukrainians were not sovereign and independent.
Phil Hegseth:
Yeah. How do you defeat China's claim on the other side of that same coin? We can declare it, but is it going to require a competing UN resolution or something of the sort?
Miles Yu:
That's the large liberal technical, but I will say this, United States has always held the position that the status quo, in other words, the separation of China and Taiwan can never be changed through the use of force. That has always been the position, the bottom-line position of the United States government since June 25th, 1950, the day after the Korean War broke out. We always hold this position, and this is all the way through the fifties, sixties, seventies, and this was a bedrock principle of the restoration of diplomatic relationship between United States and China. Every president has said this to the Chinese government very clearly, if you try to invade China with force, United States will respond with force. And this is not only enshrined in the presidential executive statement, but also is strongly implied in the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979.
Phil Hegseth:
Wonderful. So let's shift gears a little bit to another story. We're still getting storylines out of the Paris Olympics in regard to the Chinese team. This time it's about Olympic gold medalist Quan Hong Chan, who is an Olympic diver who competed in Tokyo, also won two gold medals in Paris. She's now getting bullied in China for buying her mom an iPhone. Miles, what is happening here?
Miles Yu:
Well, first of all, let's just say something about this Olympic gold medals, hon, herself. Yeah, please. She's a 17-year-old girl. She is absolutely adorable. Not only that, she won gold medal medals for China in Tokyo Olympics when she was 13. And she is a phenomenal diver. She is a absolutely great, not only loved in China, but also the entire world. If you watch what she did, what the Olympics, she's absolutely great. Of course, many people in China view her as the pride of China, which is all very, very justifiable. She's from this very poor village near southern province of Guangdong, and her parents were just ordinary farmers and she was trained at the Chinese national team completely separated from her parents since she was a little baby. So that's why she feel obligated to buy something for her mom after she become the national sensation. So what she bought was from the Apple store in China was iPhone 15 pro Max, which is exactly the iPhone I'm using right now, which is great. And then so some people videotaped the whole transaction when she was there and there was an Apple store over there and the whole nation exploded with condemnation calling her unpatriotic. This is totally ludicrous, but also if you understand Chinese logic and Chinese reality, this is no surprise at all because this happen all the time.
Phil Hegseth:
So, is this a pattern? I mean, it sounds like China's cultural economic nationalism of sorts. What is the history and context?
Miles Yu:
Yes, this definitely fits in the pattern. It seems like this kind of almost like spontaneous outbursts of Chinese xenophobic feelings, sentiment. And then if you look deeper, it's not, the timing is very, very peculiar. This kind of a nationalist outburst normally is controlled and manipulated by the state. The Chinese government has totally has a capability to control, to censor all these ugly comments, bullying, but they don't. So the release of this outburst is very interesting. The reason is very simple because Apple just announced it's going to come up with a new iPhone 16. So China is in this really heated competition for Apple's popularity. So the government has issued the edicts after edicts, urging people to buy Chinese made phones, Huawei in particular. So do not buy Apple. So this kind of a state sponsored economic nationalism. Now, this is the pattern. Now, every time there is an international crisis of sort, the China normally is [inaudible] for this crisis.
Chinese government always allow, encourage this kind economic and national outburst. I'll give you one example. Well, I'll give you several examples. In 2005, Japan was actively seeking permanent membership in the UN Security Council. China was not very happy. And also at the time the government used this proof of the Japanese history textbooks to launch a nationwide boycott of Japanese funded department stores. The textbook issue is basically a non-issue. If you live in the democratic society like Japan, United States. Japan Ministry of Education, endorses aid versions of textbooks to be adopted by high school history classrooms. Of the eight, one of them was written by a revisionary right wing group, which basically said that World War II, Japan has no responsibility for. And that was basically a, of course, an international outrage. But the schools in Japan were given choices than 1% of Japanese high schools chose the textbook.
That's how the democratic democracy works. You give people choices. So the bad ones would not be chosen. China used that as excuse to launch a nationwide boycott of Japanese goods. So there was a Japanese anti-Japanese demonstration all across China. Now in 2008, that was the year when China hosted the Beijing Olympics. So during the Beijing Olympic torture relay in Paris, the torch was snatched by Tibetan protestors in Paris. China went crazy about this and fanned a boycott nationwide against the French supermarkets chain called Carrefour. So this is a really, really big deal car for, by the way, just the exit China completely with a great sense of loss and disappointment. Now in 2012, you have another nationwide boycott against Japanese goods, and many Japanese stores were smashed and looted nationwide, and riots erupted. That's because the governor of Tokyo basically bought the Senkaku islands from the individual Japanese owners.
And China went nuts about this whole thing. And then five years later in 2017, South Koreans decided in the face of a North Korean missile threat, decided to deploy the US Army developed missile defense system called the THAAD Terminal High Altitude Air Defense System. So T-H-A-A-D, and China thought, this is crazy, this is not good for China's social security. This is on South Korea's territory. So they bullied South Koreans to give up this US weapon system, and the South Koreans would not budge. So the Chinese government fanned nationwide economic nationalism against the latte group. Lotte Group is a South Korean private company that landed South Korean government, the land upon which deployed this missile defense system. Korean entertainers were banned from going to China and Chinese tourists were banned from traveling to particularly the Jeju Islands, which is a popular tourist destination. So this magazine went on for months and months and months.
So this is absolutely crazy. Now, the latest one, of course took place just about three years ago. In 2021, many companies in the United States, in Europe and in Japan stopped using cotton made in Xinjiang by slave labor, particularly the Uyghur slave labor. The Chinese government launched a nationwide prolonged boycott of Western and Japanese companies that do not use Xinjiang cotton. So this is another wave of Chinese economic nationalism. So anything as tiny as buying an iPhone for your mother could trigger a nationwide boycott and outrage. So this is just, China is a country that's basically is psychological, very fragile, it's like a giant crybaby.
Phil Hegseth:
Any act is existential, whether it's missile defense or a national hero buying their mom a phone, it all becomes the same threat towards the ideology. That's a great picture you painted. So in talking about that ideology, that shifts well to our third topic today and last week, the CCP marked the 120th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping's birth on August 22nd, Xi Jinping hailed den as an outstanding leader with high prestige recognized by the whole party, the whole army and the people of all ethnic groups in the country. So Xi lauded Deng’s legacy, but Miles, how similar are they actually? Or are they pretty different?
Miles Yu:
I think they're the same leopards with the similar, same spots, right? There's no difference to me. Xi Jinping is lauding Deng right now because he's facing a lot of domestic resistance. He tried to elevate himself above Deng Xiaoping. He tried to reverse Deng Xiaoping. So-called reform and opening up by preside opinion, Xi Jinping also present himself because he considered himself as the logical inheritor of Deng’s legacy, which is true. Unfortunately, most people in the West, particularly many people in Washington DC still think Deng Xiaoping and Xi Jinping are two different animals. They're not, they're the same because Deng wants to develop economic situation. He wants to use economic prosperity to buy political stability. Xi Jinping is the same thing. And the only difference between de Chopin and Xi Jinping is that Deng Xiaoping believe China was relatively weaker than its arch enemy the West led by the United States.
And Xi believes that the east has risen the way has declined. So he believed it's time for China to act, tough to act what de Japan would have acted in the first place. So if you look at the titles, Deng Xiaoping was champion as the chief architect of the reform and opening up. Xi Jinping himself is still the chairman of the deepening reform and opening up commission of China. And so, which brings us to the question, what the heck is reform and opening up? Yeah, right. Many people in the West believe it's all a step toward democracy toward the open market. That's nonsense. Reform opening up basically means that China is going to allow portion of its economy connected with the international free trade system and benefits from the global free trade system. While in the meantime, there were tight political control and dictatorship of the Chinese people. Don't forget, Deng Xiaoping was the ultimate perpetrator of the brutal Tiananmen massacre of 1989. Deng Xiaoping, in other words, was a diehard Marxist-Leninist. So is the Xi Jinping. There's no difference.
Phil Hegseth:
Well, Miles, that's a great place to end. Thank you again and we'll see you next week.
Miles Yu:
See you next week. Phil, thank you for listening to this episode of China Insider. I'd also like to thank our executive producer, Phillip Hegseth, who works tirelessly and professionally behind the scenes for every episode. To make sure we deliver the best quality podcast to you, the listeners, if you enjoy the show, please spread the words. For Chinese listeners, please check our monthly review and analysis episode in Chinese. We'll see you next time.