This week was a big one for U.S. diplomacy.
Chinese President Xi Jinping made a rare visit to the United States, where he met with both Joe Biden and a collective of tech moguls in California.
In both cases, Xi showcased a unique rhetorical ability that’s central to China’s diplomacy…
The ability to talk shit without talking shit.
For example, in addressing Silicon Valley’s biggest executives, a crowd packed with influential luminaries like Tim Cook and Elon Musk, Xi made the following statement…
“Whatever stage of development it may reach, China will never pursue hegemony or expansion, and will never impose its will on others. China does not seek spheres of influence and will not fight a cold war or a hot war with anyone.”
See that? He said everything but “unlike some people.”
This, the young people will tell you, is called “shade.”
He’s not attacking American leadership directly.
But at the same time, he is clearly alluding the negative caricature of the Western global order propagated by the likes of Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Ayatollah Khomeini…
That America forcibly imposes its values on the rest of the world.
That America is more of a bully than a leader, running with a gang of enablers and ostracizing those that won’t comport.
Whether it’s through sanctions, exclusive economic organizations, military alliances, or military intervention, America and its allies oppress smaller, poorer nations, or nations that simply have a different worldview.
Again, this narrative is central to Xi’s pitch to the planet that it’s time to follow a new leader — him.
This assertion was made even more explicit in a sprawling 13,000-word policy document released by Beijing in September.
“Some countries’ hegemonic, abusive, and aggressive actions against others, in the form of swindling, plundering, oppression, and the zero-sum game, are causing great harm,” the document reads.
Another section says, “Building cliques in the name of multilateralism is no more than bloc politics. Seeking supremacy in the name of multilateralism is still unilateral thinking.”
Honestly, the whole thing just goes on and on like that.
It’s kind of wild, if you think about it.
Just imagine if the runner-up in a beauty pageant wrote a 13,000-word screed criticizing the winner’s hair, makeup, dress, and face — without ever once mentioning her by name.
That’s the level of shade we’re talking about here.
So while Joe Biden rightly continued to describe Xi as a “dictator,” I think it’s also important that we acknowledge him as a shady queen.
And he’s got some "stans."
Like I said, Russia, Iran, and North Korea love this catty bitch.
So does much of the developing world, or what’s now being called the “global south.”
You have to take these figures with a grain of salt, but China’s Foreign Ministry claims more than 80 countries and organizations have “expressed approval and support” for its Global Security Initiative.
Meanwhile, China’s “Global Development Initiative,” launched in 2021 to support United Nations sustainability goals, has some 70 countries in its “Group of Friends.”
China’s cheerleaders include countries like Brazil and Pakistan, which routinely signal openness to Xi’s way of thinking, as well as his country’s pocketbook.
But they also include the Taliban and Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad — who used chemical weapons against his own people in a violent civil war in 2011 — both of which visited China in the last month or so.
Of course, China’s vision of the world isn’t just catty. It’s also contradictory.
Xi claims to want a peaceful resolution to the situation with Taiwan, but not a day goes by that China doesn’t subject the island democracy to some kind of harassment, belligerent threat, or war game.
A government official who briefed reporters on his meeting with President Biden reported that Xi said China’s preference was for a “peaceful reunification but then moved immediately to conditions that the potential use of force could be utilized.”
He also described that reunification as inevitable.
In his San Francisco speech, Xi said China was ready to be a “partner and friend of the United States.”
“The fundamental principles that we follow in handling China-U.S. relations are mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation,” he declared.
And yet this is at odds with the stated Chinese position of superseding the United States as a world leader.
It’s also at odds with China’s effort to purge the Pacific of U.S. influence, its repeated harassment of American ships and aircraft in the region, and a massive military build-up and expansion of its nuclear arsenal.
So I don’t really care what Xi says — what he does is far more important.
Actions speak louder than words.
And in fact, one recent action included an effort to corner the lithium market the same way China cornered the rare earth market.
It’s all part of a broader push for tech metal dominance.
However, the good news there is that one upstart lithium company could undermine China’s power grab.
It’s 100% Canadian owned and well within the coverage of the NORAD airspace defense screen, putting it in the perfect position (figuratively and literally) to counterbalance Beijing in the lithium space.
You can find out more about that here if you’re interested.
Fight on, Jason Simpkins Simpkins is the founder and editor of Secret Stock Files, an investment service that focuses on companies with assets — tangible resources and products that can hold and appreciate in value. He covers mining companies, energy companies, defense contractors, dividend payers, commodities, staples, legacies and more… In 2023 he joined The Wealth Advisory team as a defense market analyst where he reviews and recommends new military and government opportunities that come across his radar, especially those that spin-off healthy, growing income streams. For more on Jason, check out his editor’s page. Be sure to visit our Angel Investment Research channel on YouTube and tune into Jason’s podcasts. Want to hear more from Jason? Sign up to receive emails directly from him ranging from market commentaries to opportunities that he has his eye on. 
