Fed Up Canadian
On November 28, 2020, Di Dongsheng, vice dean of the School of International Relations at Renmin University in Beijing, gave a videotaped lecture in which he said:
Why did China and the U.S. used to be able to settle all kinds of issues between 1992 and 2016? It’s just because we have people at the top. We have our old friends who are at the top of America’s core inner circle of power and influence . . . for the past thirty years, forty years, we have been utilizing the core power of the United States.
He went on to say he was miffed when Donald Trump took office. China’s friends in Washington and on Wall Street couldn’t get the U.S. administration to back off from its efforts to challenge China like they had with previous administrations. “During the U.S.-China trade war, [Wall Street] tried to help, and I know that my friends on the U.S. side told me that they tried to help, but they couldn’t do much.”
Professor Di had higher hopes for the new Biden Administration: “But now we’re seeing Biden was elected, the traditional elite, the political elite, the establishment, they’re very close to Wall Street.” Perhaps he had reason to be optimistic—given the number of new appointees (many of them Obama Administration veterans) who came from “old friend” consulting firms that had serviced PRC clients.
Peter Schweizer’s books include detailed accounts of Chinese influence in Washington, D.C., highlighting the psychological dominance China has accumulated over many years. This has resulted in U.S. policies and actions (or inactions) in Beijing’s favor.
