The Senate’s passage of a bill on Tuesday that would force TikTok’s Chinese owners to divest from the company was sure to heighten further controversy on the Chinese side.
It will be the second visit by a top US diplomat to China since relations hit rock bottom early last year when a Chinese reconnaissance balloon passed over the US mainland.
U.S. officials downplayed hopes for a resolution to the situation, but said it was important to continue dialogue. More than two years after widespread Western sanctions against Russia, the Biden administration has described them as a coordinated effort to keep Russia’s defense sector afloat and to prevent further civilian deaths in Ukraine. China is accused of enabling this. Officials want to send a coordinated message with Europe, which they believe will be more effective than the U.S. going it alone.
“When it comes to Russia’s defense industrial base, the main contributor right now is China,” Blinken told reporters after a meeting of the world’s major economies in Italy last week. , said they have shared other items. These contributed to the rebuilding of Russia’s defense industry two years after the start of a full-scale war in Ukraine.
“If China claims on the one hand that it wants good relations with Europe and other countries, it cannot, on the other hand, incite the greatest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War,” Blinken said. Ta.
Beijing has objected to the United States’ efforts to put Ukraine at the forefront of efforts to mend relations. Ukraine “is not an issue between China and the US. The US side should not lump it together,” a senior Foreign Ministry official said in a statement released on Tuesday, which spelled out Beijing’s request for dialogue at an unusually long length. Summarized.
Blinken’s last visit to China in June followed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August 2022, following a period of near silence between senior officials from the two countries, after which communications have resumed. It was shown that The trip was canceled as a reconnaissance balloon flew across the United States several days before its scheduled departure.
But in recent months, a number of ministers have visited Beijing, and Chinese officials have returned to the United States. Blinken was the first member of President Biden’s Cabinet to visit China this month, after Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen led an economic delegation that charmed visitors with beers in Beijing while threatening to increase tariffs on steel and aluminum. Not even the first member of.
Still, the United States is spending significant diplomatic slack on countering China while Chinese leader Xi Jinping shows little inclination to ease his increasingly aggressive approach to projecting his power to the world.
Mr. Biden and Mr. Blinken are building relationships with China’s neighbors to thwart Chinese moves against Taiwan, which it claims as its own, and to warn of confrontational posture against other countries’ maritime fleets in the South China Sea. . Earlier this month, Biden met with the leaders of Japan and the Philippines at the White House, part of a broader U.S. push to build a small group of countries to work together to counter Chinese activity. .
Beijing is particularly perturbed by the U.S. strategy, arguing that the Biden administration is repurposing the Cold War containment strategy it once deployed against the Soviet Union. U.S. officials say Beijing should reconsider how it projects its power if China’s neighbors feel threatened and want to cooperate with each other to strengthen security. are doing.
Still, relations are much more stable than they were a year ago, and China appears to be showing an unwillingness to risk crossing America’s deepest red lines. China has scaled back its rhetoric and military activities around Taiwan in recent months. And even after the Biden administration issued a stern warning, the United States is still not sending weapons to Russia, Blinken said last week.
But U.S. officials say even the current level of Chinese support for the Kremlin is too much. They have warned officials that their country could also face crippling sanctions if Chinese companies continue to supply Russia with embargoed civilian parts.
Ahead of the visit, a senior State Department official told reporters on the basic principle of anonymity regarding sensitive planning considerations that “if we deem it necessary, we will respond to companies that are taking steps that are contrary to our national interests.” We are prepared to take action.” “Our aim is to make a clear case for what this support means and why it is not actually in China’s interest going forward.”
Bonnie Glaser, head of Asia programs at the German Marshall Fund think tank, said Blinken needs to convince Xi that the latest complaint is not an attempt to “drive a wedge” between him and Putin. He said there is.
Glaser said that to appeal to the interests of the Chinese leader, the United States needs to show him that curbing certain trade that supports Putin’s war effort will help stabilize the relationship with the United States. said. “China really doesn’t want to be the center of the election campaign,” she added.
U.S. exports of advanced technology are a key goal for China after President Xi Jinping warned Biden in San Francisco that tougher regulations could “deprive the Chinese people of their right to development.” It’s about relaxing regulations.
Still, some officials said they did not expect China’s behavior to change anytime soon. Biden has already taken steps to isolate Chinese industry and sever trade ties with Beijing, leaving him with less influence over China’s economy than before. He also says China has no intention of breaking with the Kremlin and sees Russia as an important partner in a world largely dominated by American hegemony.
Shi Yinghong, an academic at Beijing’s Renmin University, said there are still 16 sources of serious tension in the relationship, “none of which have seen a lasting abatement despite increased dialogue.” [former president Donald] Mr. Trump has left office. ”
His list also includes military activities around Taiwan and in the South China Sea. Human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. Initiatives to decouple the technology industry and protect supply chains. And ideological competition is intensifying as part of the new Cold War. “With any big problem, there is an established pattern,” Shi said. “Positive change is very difficult to make.”
Shepard reported from Shanghai.
