"Game of Thrones" Described by the "Witcher" Troubadour--The Entertainment of Politics for the (Virtual) Masses: Brief Reflections on the Biden-Xi Meeting (Part 1)

 

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Like the rest of the global spectators to the theater that passes for politics among the physical incarnations of empire, I am looking forward to the meeting between Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi. The meeting has all the necessary elements straight out of telenovelas, one in which a lot of people have taken great pains to stage manage for the proper functioning of the public performance of political drama. That starts with the politics of the personal--advancing global trajectories of cults of personalities and the investment in the belief in hero cultures (or in this case super-bureaucrats) (generally here). Mr. Biden set the tone for this: "'I know him well, he knows me,' Biden said of Xi. 'We’ve just got to figure out where the red lines are and what are the most important things to each of us, going into the next two years.'"

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Biden to meet Xi, discuss ‘most important things’ for US, China). The expectations are unrealistically high on both sides--at least as conveyed for mass consumption): "Wang Wen, executive dean of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, said the two leaders could use Monday’s meeting to show commitment to the world that they are willing to resolve difficult issues through peaceful negotiation. The leaders should also aim to reach a consensus on promoting talks to end the war in Ukraine, he said." (President Biden, Xi Jinping to Spell Out Priorities During Bali Meeting).  And the signals. as usual, are crossed, if only because each side is playing to multiple audiences so that the messaging, when aggregated, becomes incoherent. Thus even as both sides were mouthing off about communication and lowering the temperature of rhetoric and action, "U.S. President Joe Biden offered a full-throated American commitment to the nations of Southeast Asia on Saturday, pledging at a Cambodia summit to help stand against China’s growing dominance in the region — without mentioning the other superpower by name." (Ahead of Xi meeting, Biden calls out China). Mr. Xi is not to be outdone, though. "Xi Jinping has told the People’s Liberation Army to'“focus all its energy on fighting' in preparation for war, a Chinese Communist party mouthpiece has reported." (Here).

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 And thus a great irony in this age of democracy. democracy everywhere and everywhere democracy (here, here, here, here, here, and here)--neither liberal democratic nor Marxist Leninist political orders can seem to get enough of the cult of personality, or at least its variant form in the ancient and feudal identity of the state with its leader. "US officials have in the past expressed frustration that lower-level Chinese officials have been unable or unwilling to speak for Xi, and are hoping the face-to-face meeting will enable progress on areas of mutual concern – and, even more critically, a shared understanding of each other’s limitations." (Biden to meet Xi, discuss ‘most important things’ for US, China). In representative systems, of course, hierarchy is an essential element.  But there is always a question about its location--in to office into which authority is allocated, or embedded within the body of the individual occupying that office.  The first is boring, abstract, and difficult.  The other makes for great television. Society will always choose television. The politics of the personal sells news (here) and lubricates political germination.

Pix Credit (the Troubadour from the Series Witcher)

Beyond that there is only the matter of scripting.  And, indeed, all of politics remains  performative theatrics when it is directed outward toward one's national claques as well as an essential element in shaping the humanity of collective action that is meant to have bite. But scripting is all there is.  And it is a powerful weapon in the management of the machinery of power within and around its ideologies of democracy, hierarchy, dominance, development, and interests.  Thus, though there is much pathos here in just another meeting of abstractions, lust, desire, interests, competition, convergence and the like in the form of "great men", their entourages, hangers on, and the troubadours hired or at least permitted to sing about this to their respective greater glories. And the juicy political drama that intensifies the personal and imperial:

Biden goes into the meeting on the back of a major domestic victory with Democrats clinching control of the Senate, while Xi secured an unprecedented third term in office last month. "I know I'm coming in stronger but I don't need that. I know Xi Jinping, I spent more time with him than any other world leader." Biden told reporters in Cambodia on Sunday after the Senate results.
Xi, fresh off the heels of a Communist Party congress that cemented his power, will press Biden to commit to maintaining stability in relations with China and to respecting the status quo on Taiwan, said Li Mingjiang, associate professor at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. The two could also reopen some working-level mechanisms for bilateral consultations on trade and other issues, he said. (When Biden meets Xi: Taiwan, Russia's war in Ukraine, North Korea to top agenda)

And yet it is a drama in which, officially, no one expects much (Here's what's at stake in Monday's meeting between Biden and China's Xi Jinping). The White House speaks officially of meeting for the positive value of meeting and the re-institutionalization of communication as a bureaucratic space for transparency (see here). . . . but the drama of the event--sort of like a royal wedding but without a bride and groom, just the servants of the people playing the roles of Suzanna and Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro (Duettino in A, No. 5; sung here ). 

And this is enhanced with the spiciness of a bit of hubris nicely put by Mr. Biden but likely mutual: "'I've always had straight-forward discussions with him. There's never any miscalculation about...where each of us stands.'" (When Biden meets Xi: Taiwan, Russia's war in Ukraine, North Korea to top agenda). And yet it is that hubris that exposes the imperial nature of the personal interactions between these two mortals incarnating imperial and global power. It is on the sidelines of the big and regional powers conclave that the business of imperium will be conducted. 

Beyond this there is little to say, but this:

1. The most useful object of this meeting, ironically enough, may be the photo op. Both should tale full advantage to exploit the press organs, and perhaps--like the late Queen Elizabeth II (Queen Elizabeth: A Visual Dictionary)--use props to produce all kinds of signalling effects that will give the chattering classes globally lots to talk about. In that way images, signalling and text can be used to manage the situation in a number of different ways.

2. As remarkably silly as this sounds--the most important task of each of these incarnations (and their translators, those who record the event and read body language etc.) is to listen. Clearly, this formal/informal event is meant to produce lists of agenda items.  But the scope of the lists and the way in which they are presented will be important.  More important will be to cultivate the art of listening to the words with the meanings and from within the ideological rationalizing universe from which they emerge. Clearly that later task is well above the pay grade of the actors at the meeting--but their "team" certainly ought to be primed to the task. 

3.  Lastly, the two people who ought to be most wary of the investment by everyone around them in the personification of collectives should be the two people who star in  this meeting. That is likely the most important task and the one least likely to be successfully navigated--not when the political economies of power  push hard in the other direction. And with that this: The time has come for the rationalization of the spaces that separate the two emerging imperial regions. But perhaps this is precisely the time when both states ought, for an instant, to remember that both have emerged from long periods of unequal treaties--their eagerness to re institute this system under cover of Rules Based International ordering of Socialist Internationalism around the Chinese hub ought to be undertaken with great sensitivity.  That is a nice way of pointing to the curiosity (though reality) of the resolution of problems globally remain a matter not for front line parties, but for those who manage imperial heartlands. And that last point is strongly in dissonance with the pretty pictures that both seek to paint of their respective places in the world.