Representatives of the US House of Representatives proposed a bill to change the way the federal government addresses the head of the PRC, banning the use of the term “president.” In official documents, Chinese leader Xi Jinping will need to be named only in accordance with his current position. The expert told how such an initiative would affect the Celestial Empire.
The current leader of China, Xi Jinping, has three official titles: General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, Chairman of the PRC and Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the PRC.
Nevertheless, the entire English-speaking world, including the United States itself, refers to the head of China as “president””, despite the fact that he is not elected through national elections.
“Addressing the head of the People’s Republic of China as” president “misleads the idea that the people of that state have democratically elected the leader who rules them,” says a bill proposed by US Republican Congressman Scott Perry.
However, according to some critics of this innovation, despite the fact that presidents in many countries are either not elected at all or are in power as a result of elections that have not been recognized as free and legitimate, the American bill is exclusively about China.
In practice, it has been noticed that in recent months, some high-ranking officials of the American government, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have begun to abandon the term “president” in terms of Xi in favor of “secretary-general.” The White House report in May, which outlines the US strategic approach towards China, used Xi Jinping’s party title exclusively.
And in this regard, a timely question arises: how important such an initiative is for the Celestial Empire itself, and whether it can affect the relationship between Beijing and Washington, the tension of which is increasing every day.
“I believe that this bill has absolutely no meaning for the PRC,” Yuri Tavrovsky , a Russian orientalist, head of the Expert Council of the Russian-Chinese Committee for Friendship, Peace and Development , comments on MK . – In China, unfortunately, there is not the same proverb as ours: “Even if you call it a pot, just don’t put it in the oven.” The Americans are simply looking for an opportunity to pin-up and offend the Chinese. There are effective methods, and there are, as we now see, extremely ineffective. ”
According to the expert, Xi Jinping does not care what he is called in the United States – “chairman” or “president”. At the same time, now it depends only on him how the Sino-American relations will develop further. And the current situation clearly demonstrates that the United States is losing in this serious confrontation, and therefore clings to any opportunity to compensate for its failures.
The bill, presented by Rep. Scott Perry, comes amid a strategic GOP effort to redirect criticism of China as a way to divert attention from the U.S. federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post said.
“China’s blatant dishonesty towards the international community has cost lives, and the CCP and the World Health Organization must be held accountable for their mistakes,” the Republican said in May.
In recent months, Scott Perry has introduced a number of aggressive China-related bills. One of them envisaged a reduction in US funding at the UN until the PRC was expelled from the organization or revised its policy on Taiwan. These bills were not submitted for consideration for a long time and, as a result, did not receive support from any of the politician’s colleagues.
In turn, the new initiative of the politician was nevertheless supported by some legislators from the Republican Party, including another member of the US House of Representatives, Ted Yoho, a well-known critic of Beijing’s policies.
However, even with support, this bill will face a tough battle in the months before the next session of Congress. Any decree that did not make it to the president’s desk before its completion in early January is removed from the agenda and must be re-submitted to the next session.
According to experts, Congressman Perry’s initiative is unlikely to gain momentum, because there are other more significant and significant bills on the PRC related to forced labor, supply chains and regulation of Chinese companies listed on US stock exchanges.
