Karishma Vaswani, Columnist

America Just Doesn’t Get China’s People vs. the CCP

It’s dangerous to see the nation’s 1.4 billion citizens solely through the prism of the Communist Party. Cracks are already appearing in Xi Jinping’s efforts to control the narrative.

May 6, 2024 at 9:00 PM UTC

By Karishma Vaswani

Karishma Vaswani is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asia politics with a special focus on China. Previously, she was the BBC's lead Asia presenter and worked for the BBC across Asia and South Asia for two decades.

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

From Washington to Tokyo to Manila and Brussels, distrust of Beijing is growing. President Xi Jinping’s charm offensive in Europe this week, aimed at stabilizing relations and allying concerns over electric vehicles and chips, is just the latest move from Beijing to limit the damage.

But to really mend ties, global political leaders must stop conflating the Chinese Communist Party with Chinese people. The party doesn’t represent the hopes and dreams of 1.4 billion citizens, and to think so misses a crucial opportunity: Engaging Chinese youth in a meaningful way, with an eye on creating future relationships beyond Xi.