[CLIP] How Our Leaders Failed to Leverage Xi Jinping’s Key Weakness: Bradley Thayer

where the Cavalcade of Biden Administration officials we witnessed in the summer of 2023 and the Secretary of State Anthony blinkin John KY Janet Yellen uh Secretary of Commerce J arundo we had large number of individuals Jake Sullivan meeting uh separately uh an almost endless again Cavalcade of Biden Administration officials uh attempting to uh engage attempting to uh deliver to the PRC what the PRC wanted at the cost uh of American interest also and far more significantly at a time of tremendous vulnerability for xiin Ping's rule at a time where we have tremendous leverage and he's in a position of tremendous weakness uh we choose not to exercise that to bring about the changes that we'd like to see so it's uh I would say it's not inexplicable because it does have an explanation uh and the engagement school is one which is often uh provided which is we need to engage with the PRC build a world uh together uh but of course that's responsible for uh our decades uh of mistakes and which have led us to this uh very difficult position in which we find ourselves well absolutely and I'm going to definitely invite you back very soon to uh discuss this in Greater detail and discuss your book which I find absolutely fascinating um I want to talk a little bit as we finish about this moment that you're describing of xiin Ping's great weakness I mean again what we saw in the last few days in San Francisco does not suggest weakness it it's almost like it's almost would be easy based on the media coverage to forget that such weakness exists or or does it even so explain this to me well it shows profound weakness because he's coming to the American Business Community uh to beg uh in essence sadly the American Business Community greets him uh you know and uh provides the opportunity for him uh to speak but it's because he's profoundly weak that he's having to come and talk to them and to essentially ask them to provide resources and to provide their political uh influence uh to help them out of this difficult situation in which he uh finds himself the Biden Administration simply allows that to move ahead which is why I described them as a doormat they're simply uh he's wiping his feet before he crosses the threshold to the real meeting uh with the Business Leaders so in fact he's uh in a position of of weakness um we don't frame it that way and thus help the PRC help the Chinese Communist party and the image that g seeks to portray but looking at the condition of his economy looking at his paranoia and the increasing tightening uh of um uh that is evinced by that paranoia uh in the party uh shows that this is an individ idual who's profoundly dangerous and at the same time profoundly vulnerable and maybe just explain to me briefly what the situation with the economy as you understand it one let's start with that and then I'll go to the second part there are structural problems in the Chinese economy which are not G's faults immediately but uh are coming to a head uh with his Rule and then there are the immediate uh if you will uh problems of the economy that are his responsibility and for which he Bears uh responsibility so the structural problems are demographic they're environmental they endemic corruption uh their over production uh in certain industries uh the policies for which he's directly responsible are the Crackdown really on through anti-corruption campaign which has stressed the uh T the essentially tigers and flies uh anti-corruption campaign going after the big ones also going after the uh smaller ones which have stressed uh lower levels uh of government uh and among party officials there was the co lockdown and coming out of that which generated the blank page protest or white page protest that we saw a year ago uh that led to tremendous uh disruption and that shows that he does not yet China has not uh recovered and then of course there are the uh problems associated with trade uh difficulties largely imposed by the Trump Administration and modestly continued uh by the by Administration which he seeks to free himself to to free the Chinese economy uh from that tightening uh if you will in key sectors uh in uh particular so he has structural problems coming to a head uh while he's in power and then there are things that are a result of his misrule egregious uh misrule that conspire to put him in a very difficult situation in terms of the legitimacy crisis all classes of the Chinese people see the Chinese communist party it's illegitimate uh and then the existential crisis that are a result of the fact that his economy is in downturn uh and if it were not the money that he could raise from the 400 as well as from New York markets uh and uh Wall Street uh he would indeed face a acute existential crisis and might be removed uh from Power don't forget to subscribe to our alerts newsletter and you'll never miss an episode