The United States is not seeking a new Cold War with China but will rally allies to defend the international order against Beijing’s “aggressive” vision, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday.
In a speech meant to spell out the Biden administration’s strategy on China, Blinken said the Russian invasion of Ukraine would not distract the U.S. from confronting the long-term challenge posed by China.
“We aren’t looking for conflict or a new Cold War. To the contrary, we’re determined to avoid both. We don’t seek to block China from its role as a major power, nor to stop China — or any country — from growing their economy or advancing the interests of their people,” Blinken told an audience at George Washington University.
“But we will defend and strengthen the international law, agreements, principles, and institutions that maintain peace and security, protect the rights of individuals and sovereign nations, and make it possible for all countries — including the United States and China — to coexist and cooperate,“ Blinken said.
The U.S. will safeguard its interests and compete with China by working in concert with allies around the world and investing in innovation at home, Blinken said.
The Biden administration’s strategy toward China can be summed up as “invest, align, compete,” said Blinken, calling for bolstering research and development in new technology.
Although the administration portrayed the long-delayed speech as a major pronouncement on U.S. policy toward China, President Joe Biden’s top diplomat did not unveil any major change in course or shed any light on how the White House intends to handle trade tensions with Beijing. The administration has yet to signal whether it is ready to lift any of the hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs imposed on China by former President Donald Trump.
“Even as President Putin’s war continues, we will remain focused on the most serious long-term challenge to the international order — and that is the one posed by the People’s Republic of China,” Blinken said.
“China is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order — and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it. Beijing’s vision would move us away from the universal values that have sustained so much of the world’s progress over the past 75 years,” Blinken said.
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But the secretary of state said China played a vital role in the global economy and was integral to tackling international problems like climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Put simply, the United States and China have to deal with each other for the foreseeable future. That’s why this is one of the most complex and consequential relationships of any we have in the world today,” Blinken said.
The U.S. stood ready “to increase our direct communication with Beijing across a full range of issues,” Blinken said. “We hope that can happen,”
China’s rise as an economic power was partly the result of the international rules-based order that Washington helped to build after World War II, Blinken said.
“But rather than using its power to reinforce and revitalize the laws, agreements, principles, and institutions that enabled its success, so other countries can benefit from them too, Beijing is undermining it,” he said. “Under President Xi, the ruling Chinese Communist Party has become more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad.”
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Blinken’s speech follows Biden’s trip to Asia, during which the president appeared to contradict long-standing U.S. policy on Taiwan. When asked if the U.S. would intervene “militarily” to defend Taiwan if it was attacked by China, Biden said “yes.”
White House officials later walked back Biden’s comments, saying U.S. policy on the question remained one of “strategic ambiguity.”
In his speech, Blinken said there was no change in U.S. policy on Taiwan, and that it was consistent with past U.S. administrations.
“We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side. We do not support Taiwan independence, and we expect cross strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means,” Blinken said.
But he accused China of provocative behavior, citing efforts to cut off Taiwan’s relations with other countries and flying military aircraft near Taiwan on a near daily basis. “These words and actions are deeply destabilizing. They risk miscalculation and threaten the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait,” Blinken said.
During his tour of Asia, Biden also unveiled a new 13-nation economic framework aimed at countering China’s influence in the Asia-Pacific region. Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which was also supposed to offer Asian states an alternative to coercive economic tactics from Beijing.
The Biden administration has yet to provide many details on the criteria for the new economic framework.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
