According to three government officials, President Joe Biden’s advisers have requested that Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, cease making fun of Chinese President Xi Jinping online.
The National Security Council informed Emanuel’s team recently that his remarks run the risk of hurting the administration’s efforts to improve the administration’s highly strained relations with China, especially with a potential meeting this fall between Biden and Xi.
Using the hashtag “#MysteryInBeijingBuilding,” Emanuel, who served as former President Barack Obama’s White House chief of staff, has mockingly speculated about Xi’s treatment of his senior advisers over the previous two weeks.
On condition of anonymity to discuss the matter, a White House official said that Emanuel’s tweets “do not fit with the message coming out of this building.”
When it comes to the conflict between the United States and China, Biden adopted a conciliatory stance in his Tuesday speech to the UN General Assembly. He said that the U.S. is “prepared to collaborate with China on issues where progress depends on our combined efforts.”
In order to prevent a conflict, Biden continued, “We seek to responsibly manage the rivalry between our nations.”
It was a radically different message than what Emanuel had previously made known to the public. The ambassador wrote on Sept. 7 on X, the social media website that replaced Twitter, in reference to the disappearance of China’s defense minister and earlier this year, its foreign minister. “President Xi’s cabinet lineup is now resembling Agatha Christie’s novel And Then There Were None,” the ambassador said. “Who’s going to win this race against unemployment? Xi’s cabinet or China’s youth?
China has been incensed by Emanuel’s posts, according to administration sources who spoke on a basis of anonymity to disclose internal discussions.
A request for comment from the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., was not answered.
A representative for Emanuel refuted the information and said it was “absolutely not true.”
“Ambassador Emanuel is doing a commendable job representing the United States in Japan in a way that is unusually effective. His creativity, zeal, and perseverance are evident every day, said Kurt Campbell, the deputy assistant to the president & coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, in a recent interview.
He went on to say, “This guy is a superstar, and when you put Rahm on the field, you get the full Rahm.”
When asked if Emanuel would keep writing on China’s leadership, Campbell remained silent.
Li Shangfu, the Chinese defense minister, hasn’t been spotted in public since August 29. Last week, it was reported that he is being investigated for corruption in China. Following the mysterious disappearance of China’s foreign minister Qin Gang in June, who was subsequently replaced, Li’s whereabouts remain a mystery.
According to the officials and a former official with knowledge of the situation, some administration officials were offended by Emanuel’s remarks. However, a representative of the administration claimed that Emanuel was still a valued member of the group and that the mood was more one of frustration.
Emanuel, a longstanding and outspoken Democratic operative, worked in Congress before quitting his position as chief of staff in 2010 to run a successful mayoral race in Chicago. Emanuel is intimately acquainted with Biden and his senior advisers, and some of them have previously worked for him.
He was sworn in as ambassador to Japan in December 2021 and has enthusiastically accepted the position. Emanuel is active on social media and frequently appears in Japanese media. He was also a key participant in Biden’s recent trips to Japan.
Emanuel’s remarks, according to a second administration official, are illogical and do not further American strategic objectives with China or the Asia-Pacific region.
The official stated that it “just fights what we are doing there in the region,” adding that social media posts like Emanuel’s do not “further U.S. goals” because the U.S. recognizes the necessity to have some sort of relationship with China, particularly an economic one.
Emanuel’s message on China, according to a former Biden administration official, “runs completely counter” to the objectives his government is attempting to reach with Beijing. “They’re attempting to defuse the situation, but the Japanese envoy is attacking the Chinese? It’s foolish,” the former representative stated.
One country in the Asia-Pacific that has expressed concern about China’s hegemony, notably militarily, is Japan, a close ally of the United States.
The Biden administration shares those worries about China’s escalating hostility, possibly even against Taiwan. However, since ties hit a low point in February when the Pentagon shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon that had flown over the United States, the White House has been working to engage China and improve the situation.
White House officials who have sought to improve those ties are concerned that publicly humiliating and mocking Xi could reverse their efforts. But Emanuel hasn’t been timid.
On September 12, he posted on X, “Xi’s playbook is clear: shamelessly abuse human tragedies for political advantage without regard for the lives lost.”
“Xi’s team is utilizing artificial intelligence to disseminate erroneous accusations that American ‘weather weapons’ were to blame for the Maui wildfire, accuse the American Army of transporting COVID to China, and promote fake information regarding Fukushima. Imagine a world where that energy was directed toward providing aid to others and showing real care for the welfare of all people. like concentrating on finding ways to rehire all of China’s talented kids. That would be novel, right?
Emanuel’s most recent negative tweet against China was published right before Biden’s national security advisor Jake Sullivan was scheduled to meet in secret with Wang Yi of China for two days of negotiations in Malta.
The conversations Sullivan had are considered as laying the framework for a meeting between Biden and Xi, which may take place in November in conjunction with the APEC summit in San Francisco. The two leaders have not spoken in almost a year, and high-level delegations of American officials to China only started arriving this summer. It’s unclear if Xi will go to the APEC meeting.
“Something’s rotten in the state of Denmark,” Emanuel wrote on Thursday in reference to Xi’s last tweet, which compared the disappearance of China’s defense minister Li Shangfu to the plot of Hamlet.