How Not to Win Friends and Influence People

Xi Jinping wants to be your friend but do you trust him enough to offer your friendship?

By Lee Kok Leong, Executive Editor, Maritime Fairtrade

On June 1, the General Secretary of China Communist Party (CCP) said at a study session for top leadership that the party’s propaganda machine has to tell the Chinese narrative in a positive way and present the image of a “credible, lovable, and respectable China”. Xi will have you believe that he wants “nothing but the Chinese people’s well-being”. However, precedents show that Xi’s words and actions do not match and there is a tendency for him to say the opposite of what he will do. In fact, many Asian countries and businesses wish to have a good relationship with China but Xi is making it hard to do so.

Xi’s remarks came amid increasing calls to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 virus and a record high negative perception of China in many parts of the world. He may be feeling isolated, frustrated and embarrassed that despite his best effort at changing the narrative, the lab leak theory that the virus emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology gained traction and credibility.

Indeed, if Xi is adamant about China’s innocence, he should be open and transparent and doing all he can to dispel suspicion. Instead, he is obfuscating the…