The areas in which the United States and China can cooperate appear to be rapidly shrinking, and the risk of conflict is increasing. But on Friday, it was clear both countries were trying to salvage whatever they could.
Maintaining a facade of cooperation, and the difficulties of doing so, centered on Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday. It was the latest effort by rival companies to keep communications open amid escalating disputes over trade, national security and geopolitical tensions.
Officials from both countries said progress had been made on some small, practical fronts, including setting up the first U.S.-China talks on artificial intelligence in the coming weeks. He also said he would continue to improve communication and expand cultural exchanges between the two militaries.
But on fundamental strategic issues, each side had little hope of swaying the other and seemed wary of the possibility of further conflict.
China has accused the United States of stifling its technological advances and plotting to encircle its interests in the Pacific.
The Biden administration is deeply concerned that cheap Chinese exports are putting American jobs at risk and has threatened to impose additional sanctions on China if it does not reduce its aid to Russia in the Ukraine war. He is threatening to activate it.
“Russia will have a hard time sustaining its attack on Ukraine without Chinese support,” Blinken said at a news conference before his departure Friday. “We have made it clear that if China does not address this issue, we will.”
Blinken said he pressed China to take further steps to stop the flow of raw materials used to make fentanyl, including prosecuting those selling the chemicals and equipment.
He said the issue of Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok, which could be banned in the United States within nine to 12 months under legislation passed this week, was not raised.
In a sign of how relations between the two countries have stabilized in recent months after reaching their lowest point in perhaps decades last year, Chinese officials said on Friday that they were more conciliatory than during Blinken’s previous trip (June). indicated his tone.
“China is happy to see a confident, open, prosperous and prosperous United States,” Xi told Blinken, according to a statement from China’s Foreign Ministry. He said, “I hope that the United States can also take a positive view of China’s development.”
Mr. Blinken told Mr. Xi that he wanted to advance an agreement on the issues on which Mr. Xi and President Biden agreed to work together after their meeting near San Francisco in November.
“We are committed to maintaining and strengthening the lines of communication to move this agenda forward, and we are recommitting to addressing our differences to avoid miscommunications, misunderstandings, and miscalculations,” Blinken said. ” he said.
Still, there appear to be more factors driving the two countries apart than driving them apart. Geopolitical conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East pose new challenges. As the U.S. election approaches, the Biden administration is under pressure to further protect U.S. factories from imports from China.
“The international situation is fluid and turbulent,” Xi told Blinken, adding that the United States and China “instead of saying one thing and then doing the opposite, we should turn our words into action,” according to a Chinese readout. “We should respect this,” he said.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who spent more than five hours with Mr. Blinken on Friday, was more blunt, warning that negative factors in the relationship were “increasing and building.”
In recent weeks, U.S. officials have begun to express more urgent concerns about China’s economic aid to Russia, pending the possibility of additional sanctions involving Chinese banks that finance the trade.
Blinken said Friday that China’s support for Russia poses a threat not just to Ukraine but to broader Europe, and that European leaders share those concerns.
“All I can say is that we were very clear in detail about our concerns,” he said. “But we’ll have to see what actions follow from there.”
Biden administration officials said in a mid-April briefing with reporters that China is providing Russia with large amounts of semiconductors, drones and industrial materials. This helped fill a critical gap in Russia’s supply chain that could have crippled Russia’s war effort, and expanded Russia’s military sector faster than U.S. officials thought possible.
China denies providing weapons to Russia, and Washington says this is a red line that should not be crossed. But otherwise, Chinese officials have shown little inclination to scale back ties with Russia. On Thursday, shortly after Mr. Blinken arrived in Beijing from Shanghai, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin announced that he would visit China in May, perhaps his first overseas trip since securing re-election last month.
Asked about Putin’s announcement at a regular press conference on Friday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said he had no information to provide.
Trade tensions between the two countries also continue to smolder, as U.S. authorities consider imposing new tariffs on Chinese imports and further restricting technology exports to China due to national security concerns. There is.
Economic ties between the two countries have long been a source of strength in the relationship, Blinken reiterated Thursday as he met with business executives in Shanghai.
But with U.S. companies seeking greater protection from China and the prospect of Donald J. Trump returning to office, the economic problems could become even more explosive.
To boost the economy, Mr. Xi and other Chinese leaders are boosting factory production and exports. But U.S. leaders believe they must protect American manufacturing, especially new factories making semiconductors, solar panels and car batteries, in which the Biden administration is investing tens of billions of dollars this year. .
Blinken said at a news conference that China alone produces more than 100% of global demand for products such as solar panels and electric cars, accounting for one-third of global production but accounting for only 10% of global demand. He said that it is only one of the
“This is a movie we’ve seen before and we know the ending,” he said. “American businesses have closed and American jobs have been lost.”
Foreign Minister Wang also had some of the sharpest words on US trade policy. “The United States has taken endless measures to suppress China’s economy, trade, science and technology,” he told Blinken during the meeting, according to China’s Foreign Ministry. “This is containment rather than fair competition, and it is creating risk rather than eliminating it.”
Xie Tao, dean of the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said China knows it probably has little room to influence the United States on trade. In fact, Professor Xie says, the Chinese government seems to be placing more emphasis on people-to-people exchanges.
Chinese media have frequently highlighted Mr. Xi’s goal of inviting 50,000 young Americans to visit China, announced after a summit near San Francisco last year. (Blinken said Friday he would support more Americans studying in China.)
“The Chinese government is putting a lot of energy into shaping future generations of Americans’ views of China,” Professor Xie said.
Li Yu Contributed to research.
