China’s Messaging to the U.S.: Don’t Rock the Boat

A new buzzword is emerging in Beijing’s messaging to Washington: the “San Francisco vision”—a veiled warning to the U.S. not to rock the boat after a reset in ties at a November summit in California between President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Diplomatic outreach has gone into high gear in recent days, including with a New York appearance Tuesday by an English-speaking senior envoy of the Chinese Communist Party. The push comes ahead of Saturday’s election in Taiwan that will usher in a new president for the first time in eight years and amid a raft of other geopolitical hot-button issues where the nations don’t see eye-to-eye.