U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to China from April 24-26. In an expected announcement, State Department Spokesperson Mathew Miller said, “The Secretary will meet with senior PRC officials in Shanghai and Beijing.” Blinken will “discuss a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues.” Those include “the crisis in the Middle East, Russia’s war against Ukraine, cross-Strait issues, and the South China Sea.” The Secretary will also discuss “ongoing work to fulfill the commitments made by Presidents Biden and Xi.” Those are “on resuming counternarcotics cooperation, military-to-military communication, artificial intelligence, and strengthening people-to-people ties.” Miller’s statement pointed out Blinken “will reiterate the importance of responsibly managing competition, even in areas where our two countries disagree.”
While it was publically known that Blinken is to travel to China, this is the first official confirmation. He will be the latest U.S. official to engage with the Chinese leadership. So where is the geopolitical contest between the U.S. and China heading? In a background briefing, a senior U.S. State Department official said, “We are in a different place than we were a year ago, when the bilateral relationship was at a historic low point. We have set out to stabilise the bilateral relationship without sacrificing our capacity to strengthen our alliances, compete vigorously, and defend our interests. We also believe, and have clearly demonstrated, that responsibly managing competition does not mean we will pull back from measures to protect U.S. national interests.”
“The Secretary has three primary objectives for his trip to China.” The official said, “First, making progress on key issues. Second, clearly and directly communicating concerns on bilateral, regional, and global issues. And third, responsibly managing competition so it does not result in miscalculation or conflict. We’ve grounded these objectives in the administration’s approach to the PRC. That’s namely our invest, align, and compete strategy. We’ve made significant progress on each pillar of our strategy. And we believe our doing so has strengthened our competitive position.”
At the background briefing, Lalit Jha of the Press Trust of India asked a pointed question on the India-China border standoff. He asked the U.S. officials, “Recently India’s foreign secretary was here. And I guess China was one of the major conversations between the two countries. Would the Secretary during his meetings raise the concern that China’s neighbours have regarding the incursion on the borders ?
A senior U.S. State Department official answered the question by saying,” We continue to underscore that we stand for the respect of international law. For the peaceful resolution of disputes, for ensuring that territorial disputes are resolved peacefully. And that any and all territorial claims are rooted in international law. In instances where China or any other countries act in ways in contravention of international law or act in aggressive ways that are escalatory or coercive, we are, of course going to speak out against such actions. But again, the focus from our perspective is the importance of maintaining peace and stability and the peaceful resolution of such disputes.”
The official added, “We certainly stand for investing in the collective capacity of our friends, partners, and allies so that all friends and partners have the ability to defend their own national interests. We believe that doing so contributes to stability, which is in our collective interest going forward. I’ll also underscore, we’re not in the business of asking friends and partners to choose between the U.S. and China. But we do want to ensure that partners always have the ability to make their own choices. And their own sovereign decisions free from coercion. That’s what we stand for. And we continue to make that clear at every opportunity.”
