Global Courant 2023-05-24 02:54:46
There are signs of growing distrust between the United States and China, even as the Biden administration and Beijing appeared to be working to resume high-level talks.
President Joe Biden this weekend predicted a “very imminent thaw” between Washington and Beijing, the world’s largest economies.
The arrival Tuesday of Xie Feng, Beijing’s new ambassador to Washington, was a possible indication of warming ties, but the new envoy said relations between the two countries faced “serious problems and challenges”.
“We hope that the United States will work with China to strengthen dialogue, manage differences, and also respect our cooperation so that our relationship gets back on track,” he told a small crowd consisting mainly of journalists from New York. York existed. John F. Kennedy International Airport in York before boarding a van with aides and members of his family.
Xie Feng, the new Chinese ambassador to the United States, speaks in Hong Kong on February 7, 2020. Philip Fong / AFP via Getty Images file
While Xie may have been cautiously optimistic, a senior Chinese diplomat recently shared a gloomier view of US-China relations at a briefing.
“The bilateral relationship has once again froze,” the Chinese diplomat told NBC News, on the condition of anonymity as they are not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
The conflicting signals serve to show what a roller-coaster relationship between the countries has been.
Beijing reacted angrily to the Group of Seven, or G7, summit last weekend in Hiroshima, Japan, which pledged to cooperate economically with China but would be stricter in areas such as “economic coercion”, human rights, Taiwan, Tibet, Hong Kong and Beijing’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea.
Beijing labeled the communiqué as “smears and lies.”
Things were looking good six months ago after Biden’s meeting with President Xi Jinping in Indonesia, sparking hopes for a new chapter. But relations plummeted to a multi-decade low and a planned trip to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken was canceled after a “spy balloon” was spotted in February allegedly gathering information by flying over sensitive US military sites.
China, which apologized for the incident shortly after the ship appeared over the west coast but later took a more defensive stance, says it was an unmanned civilian weather balloon.
Biden and Xi met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia on Nov. 14, raising hopes that relations between the two countries would improve.Alex Brandon / AP file
An hour-long meeting between national security adviser Jake Sullivan and China’s top diplomat Wang Yi on May 11 reignited predictions of new high-level talks. Days earlier and after a practical freeze on high-level diplomatic communications between the two countries, US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns met with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Beijing. Then came this weekend’s G7 and China’s furious response to it.
But before high-level diplomacy can move forward — with a visit to Beijing by one of Biden’s cabinet members or a phone call between Biden and Xi — there are a number of obstacles that China says need to be addressed, the Chinese diplomat told NBC News. as well as public comments from Chinese state media and officials.
The unnamed Chinese diplomat, who is based in Washington, cited three examples of “concerns that have yet to be addressed by the US.”
One is the ongoing FBI investigation into the Chinese balloon shot down by the US, they said. Privately, Chinese officials express concern that the publication of that research could force both sides into an embarrassing cancellation of another meeting or phone call between Xi and Biden.
The Biden administration has indicated that it wants to go further.
At the G7, Biden dismissed the so-called spy balloon as a “silly balloon.” Blinken, meanwhile, didn’t mention it in his opening remarks at a congressional hearing last week.
The unnamed Chinese diplomat said another concern “still to be addressed by the US” is the “false allegations,” as the diplomat put it, that China has been operating illegal police stations in New York and elsewhere around the world. The FBI has arrested two people accused of running one of these New York police stations, just one of dozens of similar investigations in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands. China says the stations are there to help the diaspora with administrative problems.
The diplomat seemed to rule out a call from Biden-Xi in the near future.
“It is hoped that the US will work with China to address the issues in the relationship and create favorable conditions for future interactions between the two top leaders,” the diplomat added.
Favorable terms will be difficult to achieve, not least because politicians in the US have largely united around the subject of China.
“China is an adversary to the United States in every way,” said Rep. Nancy Mace, RS.C., in response to the diplomat’s comments.
“We cannot afford to be complacent or passive in the face of China’s continued aggression,” she added in a statement to NBC News.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., an old Chinese hawk, stressed the importance of a bipartisan approach to Beijing earlier in May.
“If we rest on our laurels in America, if we let the CCP defeat us, it would have serious consequences for the democratic nations of the world,” he said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
US Navy sailors off the coast of South Carolina recovered parts of the “spy balloon” on Feb. 5.Petty Officer 1st Class Tyler Thompson / United States Navy
Meanwhile, China appears to believe it can forge closer ties with the United States’ European allies.
A succession of Chinese diplomats have toured the continent, including Foreign Minister Qin Gang and Wang Yi, the director of the Bureau of the Central Commission of Foreign Affairs. This week Li Hui, China’s envoy to Ukraine, continues a tour of Ukraine, Poland, Germany, France and Russia.
At the G7, an idea from the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, took hold. Instead of “disengaging” from China, the West should “avoid” trade in industries where national interests are at stake. In other words, Europe must continue to engage in dialogue and trade with China, but also challenge Beijing when necessary and protect its vital industries.
This comes even as Europe and the US move closer to the subject of China, according to Ian Bremmer, the president of political risk and research consultancy Eurasia Group, author of “Superpower: Three Choices for America’s Role in the World” and a frequent commentator on world affairs.
“China is consolidating economic power in a way that all G7 allies find problematic,” he said Tuesday.
But von der Leyen, and Europe in general, are not tough enough on China for many in Washington.
“Our European allies must make a decision,” Mace said. “They have to choose whether to side with China or side with the United States, and we cannot allow them to continue playing both sides.”
And if China’s state-controlled media is seen as a barometer of the elite’s view of the United States and the state of the relationship, no one in Beijing is holding their breath.
“Talk for the sake of talking will do little to remove the obstacles in the path of a healthy relationship posed by Washington’s concrete steps to demonstrate complete sincerity and keep its promises,” said an article in the state news agency. Xinhua earlier this year. month.
