WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken said Thursday that despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China remains the biggest rival of the United States and its allies, and that the Biden administration aims to “shape the strategic environment” around the Asian superpower to curb its increasingly aggressive actions. .
“China is the only country that intends to reshape the international order, and increasingly the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do so,” Mr Blinken said in a speech outlining the administration’s strategy for China. “Beijing’s vision would take us away from the universal values that have sustained so much of the world’s progress over the past 75 years.
The speech was the first public review of President Biden’s approach to China and is based on a much longer classified strategy, which was largely completed last fall. U.S. officials say decades of direct economic and diplomatic commitment to forcing the Chinese Communist Party to abide by US-led rules, agreements and institutions have largely failed, and Mr Blinken says the goal now should be to form coalitions with other nations to limit the party’s global power and limit its aggression.
“We cannot count on Beijing to change its trajectory,” he said. “So we will shape the strategic environment around Beijing to develop our vision of an open and inclusive international system.
China’s open coordination with Russia before and during Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine further clarified to US and European officials the difficulties in cooperating with Beijing. On February 4, almost three weeks before the invasion, President Vladimir Putin met with President Xi Jinping in Beijing when their two governments issued a 5,000-word statement announcing an unrestricted partnership aimed at opposing international diplomatic and economic systems monitored by the United States and its allies. Since the start of the war, the Chinese government has provided diplomatic support to Russia, reiterating Mr Putin’s criticism of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories that undermine the United States and Ukraine.
“Beijing’s defense against President Putin’s war to wipe out Ukraine’s sovereignty and secure a sphere of influence in Europe should raise concerns for all of us who call the Indo-Pacific home,” Blinken told an audience at George University. Washington.
Mr Blinken emphasized that the United States was not seeking to overthrow the Communist Party or undermine China’s political system, and that the two nations – nuclear powers with intertwined economies – could work together on some issues. However, Chinese officials will almost certainly view key parts of the speech as an outline of efforts to contain China, similar to previous US policy toward the Soviet Union.
Read more about Biden’s trip to Asia
In private conversations, Chinese officials expressed concern about the focus on Mr Biden’s regional alliances and their potential to take over China.
Mr Blinken pointed to the creation last year of a security pact called AUKUS between Australia, Britain and the United States. Coalition work is the opposite of President Donald J.’s approach. Trump, who denounced US partners and alliances as part of his “America First” foreign policy.
Mr Blinken’s speech revolved around Biden’s strategy slogan: “Invest, align and compete”. Partnerships fall under the alignment section. “Invest” refers to the pouring of resources into the United States – administration officials cite last year’s $ 1 trillion two-party infrastructure law as an example. And “compete” refers to rivalry with China, which is also encouraged by the Trump administration.
Both administrations highlighted the same major problems in US-China relations: The integration of the Chinese economy with that of the United States and its allies gives Beijing a huge strategic lever. And the wealth China has gained from trade is helping it remove US dominance in the global economy and technology, as well as military power in the Asia-Pacific region.
“Beijing wants to put itself at the center of global innovation and production, increase the technological dependence of other countries and then use that dependence to enforce its foreign policy preferences,” Mr Blinken said. “And Beijing is working hard to win this race – for example, taking advantage of the openness of our economies to spy, hack, steal technology and know-how to develop its military innovations and strengthen its surveillance status.
Mr Blinken also said that in order to meet the challenges posed by Beijing, he was setting up a Chinese House team to coordinate State Department policy and work with Congress.
Liu Pengu, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said after the speech that “competition exists in some areas such as trade, but it should not be used to determine the overall picture of China-US relations.”
“China’s goal is never to surpass or replace the United States or compete with zero amount of money,” he added.
Mr Blinken also noted human rights violations, repression against ethnic minorities and the abolition of freedom of speech and assembly by the Communist Party in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. In recent years, these issues have provoked greater hostility toward China among Democratic and Republican politicians and politicians. “We will continue to raise these issues and call for change,” he said.
But Mr Blinken has tried to dispel any misunderstandings about Taiwan, the biggest single hotspot in US-China relations. He reiterated US long-standing policy toward Taiwan, despite Mr Biden’s remarks in Tokyo on Monday that the United States has a “commitment” to join the military to protect Taiwan if China attacks a self-governing democratic island. For decades, the US government has pursued a policy of “strategic uncertainty” over Taiwan – leaving it unclear whether it will use force to protect the island from China – and has opposed Taiwan’s independence.
Mr Blinken said China’s recent actions against Taiwan – attempts to sever diplomatic and international ties on the island and send fighters over the area – were “deeply destabilizing”.
“Until our policy has changed, what has changed is the growing coercion from Beijing,” he said.
Yawei Liu, a political scientist at Emory University and director of the China Research Center in Atlanta, said Mr Blinken’s words would not reassure Beijing. “I don’t think this will satisfy the Chinese side,” he told Twitter Spaces after the speech.
But Mr Blinken emphasized that despite growing fears, the United States was not seeking a new Cold War and would not seek to isolate China, the world’s second-largest economy.
Mr Blinken attributed China’s growth to the talent and hard work of the Chinese people, as well as to the stability of global trade and diplomacy agreements created and shaped by the United States in what Washington calls a rule-based international order.
“Probably no country on earth has benefited more than China,” he said. “But instead of using its power to strengthen and revive the laws, agreements, principles and institutions that have allowed it to succeed so that other countries can take advantage of them, Beijing is undermining it.
Since China’s accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001, backed by the United States, leaders in Beijing have made major changes to the nation’s planned economy to further open up to foreign trade and investment, helping to make China one of the the world’s poorest countries at its largest factory center and raises hundreds of millions of people in the world’s middle class.
But China has failed to become the free-market democracy that many in the West had hoped for, and in the past decade, under Mr Xi, the Communist Party and the Chinese state have shown an even heavier hand on the private market and individual freedoms.
Both Democrats and Republicans now see Chinese trade practices, including the government’s creation of heavily subsidized national champions and its acceptance of intellectual property theft, as one of the biggest factors undermining American industry.
“For too long, Chinese companies have enjoyed much greater access to our markets than our Chinese companies,” Mr Blinken said. This lack of reciprocity is unacceptable and unsustainable. “
The administration unveiled a major initiative to shape the economic environment around China – the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework – during Mr Biden’s visit to Tokyo this week. The United States and 12 Asian and Pacific nations will try to negotiate new industry standards.
But skeptics say Washington’s ability to shape trade in the Asia-Pacific region could be limited, as the framework is not a traditional trade agreement that offers countries reduced tariffs and more access to the lucrative US market – a move that would be politically unpopular in the United States.
Mr Blinken did not point to the Chinese government’s influence and espionage operations in the United States, which were the focus of the Trump administration’s communications on China. He said he welcomed Chinese exchange students and that many remained – “They help stimulate innovation here at home, and it benefits us all.”
“We can be vigilant for our national security without closing our doors,” he said. “Racism and hatred have no place in a nation built by generations of immigrants to fulfill the promise of opportunity for all.”
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