The way Beijing sees it, a resolution of the current trade war with the United States will take more than simply lower tariffs. It will require a significant increase in the value of an all-important Chinese commodity: “face.”
In traditional Chinese culture, face, or mianzi, means pride, honor, and prestige. Losing it amounts to shame. “Trees can’t live without bark, men can’t live without face,” goes a Chinese saying. From small gestures such as the giving of gifts to the intricacies of global diplomacy, Chinese keep track of gains and losses in the critical currency of face.
It is a concept enshrined in Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s central goal for China – to achieve national rejuvenation after what is known here as the “century of humiliation” between the mid-1800s and the mid-1900s at the hands of Western colonial powers and Japan. China, Mr. Xi says, must regain its rightful place in the world – and, with it, national pride.
Why We Wrote This
If the U.S. and China are to resolve their dispute over tariffs, the success of their talks will depend on much more than just numbers. For Beijing, it will come down to the all-important concept of “face.”
It is because of face that U.S. President Donald Trump risks waiting indefinitely for Mr. Xi to call him up to start trade talks – even after Mr. Trump goaded Mr. Xi on Tuesday by saying, through a White House spokesperson, that “the ball is in China’s court.”
Risking national shame
In China, if Mr. Xi picked up the phone he would be seen by many as bowing down to Mr. Trump, incurring a loss of face – not only for himself, but for the Chinese people as a whole.
Making matters worse, from Beijing’s perspective, the Trump administration has done little so far to instill confidence that it is sensitive to concerns about face, experts say.
Take Mr. Trump’s televised dressing-down of Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House in February.
That scene “certainly discouraged Xi Jinping from wanting any kind of meeting with Trump in the Oval Office,” says Susan Shirk, a research professor at the University of California, San Diego. “There is not the minimal level of trust” for serious negotiations, let alone for a state visit by Mr. Xi to Washington, she says.
This month, in a televised interview, Vice President JD Vance referred to Chinese people as “peasants” – a remark widely viewed in China as insulting and “disrespectful,” in the words of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian.
Beijing hinted at its face considerations this week, reportedly setting preconditions for talks with the United States that included “greater respect — specifically, reining in disparaging remarks by Trump’s cabinet members,” according to an article in the Chinese financial publication Caixin Global.
To minimize the risk of such face-jeopardizing encounters, Beijing has for months sought to forge back-channel communications with Washington, allowing for the quiet diplomacy that China consistently favors.
Denis Balibouse/Reuters/File
Signaling that Beijing remains open to talks, the Ministry of Commerce has named a new senior trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, and reportedly asked Washington to appoint a counterpart. It says that “working level” communications with Washington are ongoing.
Yet China’s imperative to save face will dictate its overarching approach to talks, as a senior Chinese official made clear this week in a blustering defense of national pride.
“It is extremely naive to think that by flattering, bowing down to, or pleading with the U.S., we can achieve peace, respect, and development,” said Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, in a speech on Tuesday.
“The U.S. isn’t after our tariffs,” he said, “it is after our very survival. … Let those American peasants wail before the 5,000-year-old civilization of the Chinese nation!”
