Global Courant
The governments of China and the United States are moving closer to resuming high-level dialogue as the media reported that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Beijing within weeks or as early as next week.
CNN reported Tuesday that Blinken will travel to China in the coming weeks. Politics reported on Thursday that his trip can take place next week.
Beijing has so far declined to comment on Blinken’s itinerary. It said the US and China should maintain dialogue, but Washington should show sincerity and stop “saying one thing but doing another”.
Some Chinese commentators said it shouldn’t be surprising if Blinken visits Beijing, given that there have been several rounds of talks between US and Chinese officials over the past month. But they said Beijing will have limited expectations for meetings with US officials.
If confirmed, Blinken’s trip will mark the highest visit by a US official to China since then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited the country in 2018. Chinese balloon incident in late January.
Growing hopes of a bilateral thaw between the world’s two largest economies sent the Dow Jones index up 258 points, or 0.8%, to 33,833.61 on Wednesday and Thursday. The Shanghai Composite Index also rose 31 points, or 1%, to 3,231.41 on Thursday and Friday.
Choose side
This was reported by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday called all US diplomats to carry out Blinken’s promise that Washington will not force other countries to take sides between the US and China.
“We hope that US diplomatic missions around the world will really treat other countries’ development of relations with China with an open and inclusive attitude, stop suppressing Chinese companies, including Huawei Technologies everywhere, stop forcing allies to limit chip exports to China, stop luring other countries to abandon their cooperation with China and stop spreading false information such as ‘China’s debt trap,'” said Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the ministry of Foreign Affairs, Friday during a regular media briefing.
US President George Washington. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
To describe China-US relations, Wang used a quote from the first US president, George Washington, who said: “A little acquaintance with the world should convince every man that actions, not words, are the true criterion. are for the attachment of friends.”
“We care about what the US says, but we care even more about what actions it takes,” he said.
Prior to this, Wang said on Wednesday that China and the US should maintain necessary communications, but that the responsibility for the current challenges to China-US relations does not lie with China.
“The US must respect China’s core interests and deep concerns, stop interfering in China’s internal affairs, stop harming China’s interests, and stop calling for communication on one side and provocations on the other,” he said. he.
Blink on Thursday told the media during his visit to Saudi Arabia that the US is not asking anyone to choose between Washington and Beijing. He said Washington is just trying to show other countries the benefits of partnering with the US.
Last December, China and Saudi Arabia signed a series of strategic deals, including one with Huawei, during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s three-day visit to Riyadh. On March 10 Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed restore diplomatic relations and reopen embassies after years of tension. Chinese media said Beijing had contributed to the talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
‘De-risking’ plan
On May 20 G7 leaders said in a joint statement that they have a common interest in preventing a limited number of technological developments from being used by some countries to enhance their military and intelligence capabilities to undermine international peace and security.
They said the G7 countries are not separating from China, but they also recognize that economic resilience requires “risk reduction and diversification”.
On Tuesday, the US Treasury Department, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned a network of seven individuals and six entities in Iran, China and Hong Kong associated with Iran’s ballistic missile program.
“As a Chinese proverb says, ‘Good faith makes good things happen.’ Dialogue should be based on mutual respect and aim for real results,” said Xie Feng, China’s ambassador to the US. told US business Wednesday at a US-China Business Council event.
“It is certainly not the right way to seek dialogue and cooperation while putting the other on the sanctions list,” he said. “A dialogue that is only conducted for its own sake will not work either. Saying one thing and doing another can only produce unintended results.”
“For high-level interactions, management of the whole process is essential – fostering a good atmosphere beforehand, collecting results in the process and then realizing them,” he said.
He added that for many Chinese, the word “risk reduction” may just be another name for “decoupling.” He said the US should not use national security as an excuse for protectionism.
Diao Daming, associate professor at Renmin University of China in Beijing, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the US is trying to test China’s response to Blinken’s potential visit through media hype and trying to shape its own image as a promoter of communications.
He said the range of actions recently taken by the US reflects Washington’s duplicity and contradiction.
China’s demands
In April, the media reported that US President Joe Biden would sign an executive order banning US companies and private equity and venture capital funds from investing in Chinese microchips, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biotechnology, and clean energy projects and companies. But so far there has been no update.
On May 8, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang met with US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns in Beijing. On May 11, top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met in Vienna. On May 25, Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao met with US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in Washington, DC. The three meetings were described by both sides as frank and constructive.
On May 8, 2023, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang met with US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns in Beijing. Photo: Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs
“The three meetings show that tensions between the US and China have eased over the past month,” a commentator from Guangdong writes in a statement. article published Friday. “If U.S. officials need to visit China, it won’t hurt for Chinese officials to meet with them.”
“But when Blinken visits China, the Chinese government should issue an official warning to the Biden administration that if it continues to cross the Chinese red line on Taiwan issues and take extraordinary actions, the responsibility of shaking Sino-US relations or causing military conflict in the Western Pacific will be up to the US,” the commentator says.
He says the Biden administration has not canceled the additional tariffs and sanctions imposed on China, but hopes that China will continue to buy American food, natural gas, aircraft and semiconductors, rather than buying goods from Brazil, Russia and France. He says Beijing should tell Americans that China will not buy goods from countries that harm its interests.
He adds that Blinken should answer why the Russian-Ukrainian conflicts have shown signs of spillover, which is bad news for Europe. He says the problems can only be solved if the US is willing to cooperate with China.
Read: US-China trade talks end in more chip war salvos
Read: With Micron ban, China says no to ‘risk reduction’
Follow Jeff Pao on Twitter at @jeffpao3
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