San Francisco dreams of itself as a “beacon for peace” in relations between China and the United States

2023-11-14 05:49:22

LETTER FROM SAN FRANCISCO

At the APEC summit in San Francisco, November 13, 2023. ERIC RISBERG / AP

Hundreds of posters appeared in the streets of San Francisco at the end of October. « It all starts here » : ” It is ici let it all begin.” The advertising campaign recalls everything that the city has brought to the world: technological innovations, societal revolutions… The Summer of Love of 1967, Levi’s jeans, chatbots, self-driving cars, “drink a Martini and take an Uber home.” It is financed by a consortium of personalities and companies who hope to restore the image of the city, damaged for months by the spectacle of hundreds of drug addicts doused in fentanyl – a synthetic opioid – and prostrate on the sidewalks.

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The slogan well sums up the state of mind in San Francisco at the opening of the summit of APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) countries. Some 30,000 people, heads of state, CEOs, media from twenty-one countries, including China, Japan, Chile, Mexico, Canada, not forgetting Russia, took possession of the center. San Francisco had not experienced an international event of such magnitude since 1945 and the conference which resulted in the birth of the UN and the definition of the principle of “collective security” supposed to guarantee peace.

The city on the Pacific Rim would have no problem if a phase of de-escalation in international relations also began here. “The city can once again become a beacon for peace”argues Christopher Tang, professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, in the San Francisco Time.news. The researcher does not neglect the fact that some APEC members are at loggerheads over the conflict in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war or the territorial disputes in the South China Sea. But, according to him, the main world economic powers need stability.

Perfect setting for China’s reengagement

The most anticipated moment of the conference, the Joe Biden-Xi Jinping meeting, on November 15. At their last meeting, at the G20 summit in Bali (Indonesia) in 2022, the American and Chinese presidents promised to manage their relations in a manner ” responsible “. In the meantime, there was the spy balloon affair at the start of the year, and a rise in antagonism such that the mere announcement of a meeting seemed like appeasement. “The world hopes to see the signal that the two great powers are committed to ensuring that competition does not turn into conflict, analyzes Colin Kahl, former senior Pentagon official under the Obama administration and researcher at Stanford University. The encounter is in itself the message. »

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