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Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Thursday that the United States is not interested in entering the Cold War with China and has vowed to increase Washington’s lines of communication with Beijing.
“We are not looking for conflict or a new Cold War. On the contrary, we are determined to avoid both,” Blinken said at George Washington University in the District of Columbia.
The secretary of state said the Biden administration did not want to block China’s economic growth or even its role as a world power.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken speaks after visiting the exhibition “Burma’s Road to Genocide” at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, Monday, March 21, 2022 (Kevin Lamarck, Pool via AP)
AFTER BIDEN TAIWAN’S NOTE, BLINKEN INSISTS TO LEAVE US COMMITTED TO A CHINESE POLITICS
Instead, Blinken said the United States would take a new approach to its biggest rival, and said Washington would work with its allies to strengthen international laws and institutions to uphold democratic values and maintain peace and security.
“We cannot count on Beijing to change its trajectory. So we will shape the strategic environment around Beijing to develop our vision of an open, inclusive international system, “he said.
Blinken’s comments come as Western nations become increasingly concerned that Beijing may feel encouraged by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brazen war in Ukraine and take similar steps against Taiwan.
“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 People’s Republic of China,” Blinken said.
“The United States and China must deal with each other in the foreseeable future,” he added, adding that US-China relations are one of the “most complex and consistent relations” in the world today.
President Joe Biden meets virtually with Chinese President Xi Jinping from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, November 15, 2021 (AP Photo / Susan Walsh)
The US military will protect Taiwan, “IF THIS HAPPENS,” Biden said.
Craig Singleton, a senior fellow at China’s Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and a former US diplomat, told Fox News that the secretary’s comments Thursday were “better late than never.”
But he added: “There are still deep divisions in the Biden administration over key aspects of the US-China strategic rivalry.”
“In the absence of a clearer directive from the president himself, the ministry is likely to remain haunted by ‘paralysis of analysis,'” he argued.
Singleton said he would like to see clear political goals when it comes to dealing with Beijing on a range of issues from global security to trade.
The national security expert also warned that the United States was pursuing a strategy with China that suggested Beijing’s strength was still growing, saying that poor leadership in the pandemic by Chinese President Xi Jinping “accelerated the rapid economic slowdown. China has revealed major shortcomings in the Chinese Communist Party’s model of governance. “
“Then the risk is that Washington is committed to a counter-China strategy based on China’s rise, not one that seeks to safely manage China’s apparent decline,” he added.
Chinese President Xi Jinping attends an award ceremony for role models at the Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in the Great Hall of the People on April 8 in Beijing. An Australian angered C supporters by holding a sign in Sydney insulting the communist leader. (AP Photo / Ng Han Guan)
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President Biden made headlines earlier this week when he told reporters in Japan that the United States would intervene militarily if China attacked Taiwan.
“This is the commitment we made,” he said of the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.
“We agree with China’s policy,” Biden said. “We signed it and all the planned agreements made from there. But the idea that it can be taken by force, just taken by force, it’s just not, it’s just not appropriate.”
The White House immediately tried to downplay the president’s comments, and Biden said Tuesday that the U.S. position on Taiwan has not changed.
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