WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s aides have asked U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel to stop posting messages on social media mocking Chinese President Xi Jinping, three administration officials said. I made it.
Officials at the National Security Council have told Emanuel’s staff in recent days that his comments threaten serious negotiations with China, including the possibility of a meeting between Biden and Xi this fall. He said the move could undermine the administration’s efforts to repair strained relations.
Over the past two weeks, Mr. Emanuel, who served as former President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, has directly criticized Mr. Xi using the hashtag #MysteryInBeijingBuilding, making sarcastic remarks about the Chinese leader’s treatment of his inner circle. I’ve been guessing.
Emanuel’s tweets “are not consistent with the message coming out of this building,” a White House official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.
Biden struck a conciliatory tone regarding the conflict between the United States and China in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. He said the United States is “ready to work with China on issues where progress depends on common efforts.”
Biden added: “We will work to responsibly manage the competition between our two countries so that it does not descend into conflict.”
It was a markedly different message than what Emanuel had conveyed publicly recently. “President Xi’s cabinet now resembles Agatha Christie’s novel ‘And Then There Were None.'” The Ambassador wrote to X on September 7th:, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, referring to the disappearance of China’s foreign minister earlier this year and more recently of its defense minister. “Who will win in this unemployment race? China’s young people or the Xi Jinping cabinet?”
Administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said China was furious about Emanuel’s posts.
In response to Emanuel’s criticism, Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., said, “At a time when partisan infighting and domestic social problems are being ignored, there is no use in putting yourself in the spotlight.” “No. Shifting attention will not bring about useful solutions.” It is better to act in a manner befitting a public position. ”
A spokesperson for Mr. Emanuel disputed the NBC News report, calling it “completely untrue.”
“Ambassador Emanuel has served with distinction as a rare and capable representative of the United States in Japan. His ingenuity, passion, and relentlessness are on full display every day,” said Deputy Assistant to the President. Curt Campbell, official and Indo-Pacific coordinator, said in an interview.
He continued, “This guy is a superstar, and when you put Rahm on the field, you get a complete Rahm.”
Campbell did not comment when asked whether Emanuel would continue posting about China’s leadership.
Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu has not been seen in public since August 29, and reports emerged last week that he was under investigation in China. Li’s whereabouts have become a mystery following the similar disappearance in June of China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who was later replaced.
Some administration officials are angered by Mr. Emanuel’s comments, according to officials and former officials familiar with the matter. But one administration official described the sentiment as rather annoying, saying Emanuel remains a valuable member of the team.
A longtime outspoken Democrat, Emanuel served in Congress and left his position as chief of staff in 2010 to run a successful Chicago mayoral campaign. Mr. Emanuel knows Mr. Biden and his inner circle well, some of whom worked for him at different points in his career.
He was appointed Ambassador to Japan in December 2021 and has wholeheartedly embraced the role. Emmanuel is prolific on social media and regularly attracts media attention in Japan as well. He also played a leading role in Biden’s recent visit to Japan.
Another administration official said Emanuel’s comments were meaningless and did not advance U.S. strategic objectives with China or the Asia-Pacific region.
“We’re just fighting what we’re doing in the region,” the official said, adding that the United States recognizes the need to maintain relations with China, especially economic relations, and that The statement said the social media posts “do not further the goals of the United States.” ”
One former Biden administration official said Emanuel’s message on China was “completely contrary to” the goals the administration was trying to achieve with Beijing. “Are they trying to calm things down and have the ambassador attack the Chinese people? That’s stupid,” the former official said.
Japan, a close ally of the United States, is one of the Asia-Pacific countries concerned about China’s dominance in the region, especially its military dominance.
These concerns about China’s increasing aggressiveness, including potentially toward Taiwan, are shared by the Biden administration. But since relations hit a nadir in February after the Pentagon shot down a Chinese reconnaissance balloon that flew over the United States, the White House has engaged with China for months to make relations more stable. I’ve been trying to get it back on track.
White House officials who have been working to mend those ties fear that publicly mocking and embarrassing Mr. Xi could undo that progress, officials said. But Emmanuel did not hold back.
“Mr. Xi’s strategy is clear: shamelessly exploit human tragedy for political gain, with no regard for the lives lost,” he said. I have written In X on September 12th.
“Xi’s team used AI to spread false claims that U.S. ‘weather weapons’ caused the Maui wildfires and blamed the U.S. military for bringing the coronavirus to China. , are spreading disinformation about Fukushima. Imagine a world where that energy is channeled into humanitarian aid and genuine concern for global interests. Focused on how to return great China’s youth to full employment. It’s the same as that. Nowadays, that must be a novelty!!!”
Emanuel’s recent disparaging posts about China come as Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan was scheduled to meet in secret with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Malta for two days of talks. It was at the tip of the arrow.
Sullivan’s discussions are seen as laying the groundwork for a meeting between Biden and Xi, possibly around the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco in November. The two leaders have not met in nearly a year, and China only began hosting high-level delegations of U.S. officials this summer. It is unclear whether President Xi will attend the APEC summit.
In his last post about Mr. Xi, Mr. Emanuel compared the disappearance of Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu to Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet,” and said, “Something is rotten in the country of Denmark.” he wrote Thursday.