Recently, the American president-elect, Donald J. Trump, had publicly invited the Chinese premier Xi Jinping, to attend his inauguration on Jan 20.
The invitation was problematic not only because foreign leaders do not traditionally attend the inauguration of other leaders, the invitation also carried the implication that Trump wanted China to show its deference to America.
Xi predictably, has declined to accept Trump’s invitation. Despite that, China has consented to send Vice President Han Zheng to attend Trump's inauguration.
By refusing “homage” to Trump, Xi is sending the message that China does not want to be seen as second to America. However, by sending its vice, China is also sending the signal that although it is refusing to be seen as a second, it does not intend to contest America's perception that it is in the number one position.
From this inauguration invitation controversy, although we can see that the deteriorating relationship between America and China is likely going to escalate in lieu of the perceived contest for supremacy, the silver lining on the cloud is that at least the international relationship between China and America will be done in a masculine manner for a change.
The signal that Trump sent Xi when he invited Xi to attend his inauguration was a masculine signal.
The way that xi responded is a masculine response.
This is a positive development, because now we can at least be rest assured that even if China and America are not on the best of terms, at least their problems will not escalate due to miscommunication.
An example of how the problem between America and China could have escalated because of miscommunication can be seen in how President Xi was communicating with outgoing Canadition Premier justin Trudeau at the G20 summit in Indonesia 2 years ago.
In that interaction, a a clearly irritated Xi would ask justin to "enable the conditions for talks" to signal his anger Justin, for leaking news to the media about the China- Canada relationship, but Justin will be oblivious to it, and instead choose the moment to "educate" Xi on the proper way to conduct himself, although Xi is not only elder to Justin , but also the leader of a of a more powerful nation.
That kind of situation, where a masculine leader has to interact with a non-masculine leader, can easily escalate the natural problems between the top two nations in the world, due to miscommunication.
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