Thanksgiving diplomacy for hostages, APEC, but not for turkeys?

President Joe Biden took the occasion of his 81st birthday to pardon two turkeys on Monday, as is the tradition on Thanksgiving week | AP

For Thanksgiving, we have diplomatic movement.

Qatar has announced a humanitarian pause has been agreed to in Gaza, the details of which are to be announced within the next 24 hours, according to news reports. Furthermore, the pause which initially will last four days could be extended as more hostages are released.

As many as 50 women and six children may be released soon by Hamas, as negotiations in Qatar are moving toward an exchange of one civilian hostage for three Palestinian prisoners held by the Israelis, according to several reports.

Interesting Qatar has announced a “humanitarian pause” and not a ceasefire.

All day reports split hairs, refusing to call it a  “ceasefire” but a “truce,” essentially the same thing, but not the same word.

Public relations is everything when the big boys negotiate. Words save face and create the space to find a pathway to peace. Notice again, no official statements use the “p” word as a goal. Peace? We’re not there yet. It’s just a “humanitarian pause” that can be extended as long as there are hostages and prisoners to exchange, it appears.

Yet another example of the hyper-sensitive geo-political world we currently live in, where you don’t get where you want to go by being too sloppy or too honest.

APEC

Witness last week’s APEC meeting in San Francisco. The confab was just a side show for businesses to deal with APEC countries like the Philippines. Manila got a nuclear energy deal it sought with the US and a chance to cozy up to US leaders. There’s still a question whether nuclear makes sense for safety reasons, but the deal begins a debate in the Philippines.

What made APEC a big deal for the world, however, was everything happening outside the Moscone Center.

There were the protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, and the really big deal, the meeting between President Biden and China’s President Xi about 45 minutes away at the Filoli estate.

The opening statements were all the world needed to hear. Biden said “We have to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict” and that it was a responsibility “to our people and the world that we work together.”

Xi admitted “turning our back on each other is not an option.” He said that “major country competition” cannot solve the problems facing China and the US and the world at large. “Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed as one country’s success is an opportunity for the other,” Xi said.

This is the showbiz script part that masks the fact that China has spies all over the US and nukes pointing at key US targets. We are enemies who want each other’s dollars, not blood. A war between the two? Nobody has a taste for that—for now.

After the talks, the Philippines got what it wanted to hear. Open communications between China and the US, cut off since August, mean next time China rams into a Philippine boat in the disputed islands in the West Philippine Sea, China and the US can pick up the phone and talk. Discussion on stopping component parts of Fentanyl from reaching the US and some talk on AI were important but it’s nothing like a commitment to open communications.

Still, that wasn’t what the world wanted to hear. The most pressing questions at the news conference were on the Israel-Hamas war, and the hostages, including that three-year old American toddler. Biden nearly spoke out of turn, but then stopped himself from saying too much. It likely kept the negotiations in Qatar on track to the point where we are now.

Then, to illustrate how important even a word is, Biden was asked if Xi was a dictator.

“Well, look, he is,” Biden said, pointing out Xi heads a communist country that has a different system from ours.

That brought a snippy reaction from the Chinese Foreign Ministry. But nothing from Xi. And it was played down in China.

Both China and the US have spies and nukes targeting their respective countries. It’s going to take more than the truth to start a war.

Biden could be blunt because all China wants is for everyone to know you can do business in China. Doing business with a dictator? That never stopped the US

Peace begets profits begets peace. That’s all anyone at that level cares about.

What does it mean to all the rest of us Filipinos and Asian Americans?

If US-China relations sour, so will life for Asian Americans to such a degree it could rival the pandemic when we saw a rise in Asian American hate. When xenophobic whites beat up Filipinos, they didn’t ask about their ethnicity. They saw an Asian face.

So we can be thankful that tensions have been relieved for now.

Personally, instead of going to APEC last week, I chose to keep my appointment for a root canal.

As far as canals go, I would prefer a vacation in Venice. But as I have an actual tooth issue, I skipped APEC and saw my Asian-American immigrant health professional.

For privacy’s sake, I will not reveal the person’s name. There have been too many attempts by China to harass American citizens of Chinese descent in our country. So for candor and safety, let’s just call the person X.

Dr. X was happy I chose him over APEC. X’s story is very common among all AAPIs in the US who live and work in America. The ancestral home is a distant memory. Though many still have family and friends there, people go back rarely. They are lucky to take vacation once every  few years, if that. They are not the jetsetter types that straddle Asia and the US.

Dr. X just wants an end to the tension between the US and China.

So while China’s President Xi was trying to repair relations with President Biden and the US, X was doing my root canal.

I think X was more successful than Xi.

My tooth no longer hurts. Xi has to wait to see APEC worked for China.

But that’s diplomacy. You wait and see if the nice talk moves the obstacles in the way.

It may have done so in the Middle East.

Thanksgiving

President Biden took the occasion of his 81st birthday to pardon two turkeys on Monday, as is the tradition on Thanksgiving week.

It happens every year and it’s a fun photo op. But maybe this year should be different because our nation’s factory farms are a sad, gruesome killing place.

“Eighty-five percent of Americans have turkey on Thanksgiving, leading to the slaughter of over 45 million birds (and over $1 billion in sales) on a single day,” writes animal rights activist Wayne Hsiung on his Substack blog, The Simple Heart.

It’s just “corporate cruelty and greed,” as Hsiung calls it.

It’s great that Biden has pardoned two turkeys. But what is our response? To go out and eat more turkey?

The proper response should be to pardon your own turkey this week.

Tofu is a great substitute. And then everyone can be grateful. Even the turkeys.

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He writes a column for INQUIRER.net’s USA channel. See his micro talk show on YouTube and at www.amok.com.