Restrictions on Chinese Officials Put in Place by White House Over China-Russia Partnership, Biden Expands Restrictions Put in Place by President Trump

The Biden administration seems to want to destroy as much relations with other nations as possible, and has decided that an escalation would be necessary against China, after the White House accused Beijing of cooperating with Russia, regarding weapons and supplies. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, announced that there will be visa restrictions put in place for Chinese officials after the accusations of helping Moscow, both with weapons and supplies and facilitating the by-passing of Western sanctions. 

Blinken also conveniently brought up the ethic cleansing of Uighurs, who have been locked in concentration camps for years now, and of note, went largely ignored until now. Interesting because up until Blinken’s statement, they were solely doused in China “fence sitting” over the Russia-Ukraine conflict. 

As cited in Bloomberg, Blinken called on China to “end its ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, repressive policies in Tibet, crackdown on fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong, and human rights violations,”  

“The United States rejects efforts by (Chinese) officials to harass, intimidate, surveil, and abduct members of ethnic and religious minority groups, including those who seek safety abroad, and U.S. citizens, who speak out on behalf of these vulnerable populations,” Blinken said. “We are committed to defending human rights around the world and will continue to use all diplomatic and economic measures to promote accountability.” 

The number of Chinese officials who may be impacted by the restrictions, effectively banning them from entering the United States, is unclear.

Funnily enough, it’s an expansion of the restrictions put in place by President Trump. 

The White House also issued a statement, saying that the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, had said that China must basically pick a side and that Beijing should condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine. 

Rabobank released commentary on the situation between China and Russia and how the Chinese fit into the Ukraine War: 

But next up must surely be many in markets. On Friday, I argued if the Biden-Xi call went well, markets would take it as positive; if it went badly, markets would take it as a huge negative; and yet what we were told happened on the call might not be the whole story. Markets saw the bullet points released by the Chinese side *before the call was even over*, which had key words like “peace” and the need for good US-China relations,…. and fell for it hook, line, and stinker even though the US readout was short and brusque. 

That’s a very bad call call. It’s as bad as Eurasia Group’s Ian Bremmer calling for President Biden to visit Kyiv, when if a bomb hits him it’s WW3; or one on Twitter from an Asian hedge fund player (although in truth I find it hard to tell if they are a parody account or not) which says: “Seems initial reaction to Xi – Biden call was positive, as expected, but let’s see how Western media ‘interprets’ it. US and China= BFFs?” And, when someone pushes back, the response being: “…not everyone’s view counts equally. The view of those participating in the capital markets matters disproportionately more, this is why the US runs the world.” Which is ironically what this is all about, while still being completely wrong. 

Geopolitical analysts, including ones who cover markets too, note that underneath the algo-triggering headlines the reality was that Beijing: 

• Blamed the US for the crisis by expanding NATO, rather than Russia expanding Russia; 
• Stated the US would have to resolve it using a Chinese idiom; 
• That this includes addressing Russian security needs too, and linking this all back to Taiwan; 
• Saying China would help if the US backs off on trade war, tech war, AUKUS, the Quad, etc.