On July 1, local time, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken attended the U.S. Foreign Policy Dialogue hosted by the Brookings Institution in Washington. In a 50-minute conversation with Suzanne Maloney, vice president of the Brookings Institution, "China" was mentioned about 30 times.
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When talking about relations with China, Blinken talked about "competition" and declared that because "China's vision for the future is different from ours," the United States will "compete fiercely" with China to "make sure that we are the country that will truly shape the future." ”
In recent years, the United States has positioned China as its "main competitor" and "most significant geopolitical challenge." Blinken's remarks vividly demonstrated the zero-sum game mentality of the United States and its mentality of trying to "win" China.
At the press conference of foreign ministers at the two sessions in March this year, Wang Yi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and foreign minister, urged the US side to recognize the general trend of historical development and view China's development in an objective and rational manner. If you are bent on suppressing China, you will end up harming yourself. ”
On July 1, local time, Blinken attended the U.S. Foreign Policy Dialogue hosted by the Brookings Institution (video screenshot)
Asked how long the U.S.-China relationship will remain stable and whether the relationship will go back and forth between crisis and stability in the future, Blinken said, "The people of the United States and the world expect us to do everything we can to responsibly manage the world's most complex and important relationship." That means being clear and effective about the areas where we have deep differences that will take the world in different directions, and it means doing everything we can to find areas where we can work together. ”
"This means that we have to not only acknowledge, but also accept the fact that we are indeed in a fierce competition that will determine the international environment for decades to come." "This goes back to the basic proposition that President Biden made when he took office: that we will respond to China or any other challenge from a position of strength," Blinken said. ”
Blinken said the U.S. will invest in itself and its alliances and partners to better position itself to address challenges, including from China.
Referring to the NATO summit to be held next week, he said that four "Indo-Pacific partners" – Australia, New Zealand, Japan and India – will participate, "More and more European partners feel that Asia's challenges are relevant to them, just as more and more Asian partners think Europe's challenges are relevant to them." He also cited Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's previous claim that "what happens in Europe today could happen in Asia tomorrow."
Subsequently, Blinken began to hype up "Sino-Russian relations have far-reaching implications for Europe", claiming that "China is investing in the Russian defense industry" and that China has "played a role in fueling Europe's greatest security threat" since the end of the Cold War.
On July 1, local time, Blinken attended the U.S. Foreign Policy Dialogue hosted by the Brookings Institution (video screenshot)
This argument is not new, and China has made its position clear on this issue on many occasions.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian reiterated at the Foreign Ministry's regular press conference on June 19 that on the issue of the Ukraine crisis, China has never added fuel to the fire or taken advantage of the opportunity to reap profits, and has always been committed to promoting peace talks. China does not provide weapons to the belligerents and strictly controls the export of dual-use items, which has been highly praised by the international community. "We firmly oppose the US side spreading disinformation without any evidence and shirking its responsibilities to China." Lin Jian said.
Asked how he sees China's strategic goals, Blinken said China's goals are clear, "in the coming decades, they want to dominate the international system in the military, economic, diplomatic spheres." ”
"It would be one thing if their (China's) vision of the world aligned with ours or many other countries, but their vision for the future was different from ours. So we don't agree, and we're going to have a very tough competition to make sure that we're the country that's really shaping the future. Blinken said.
Immediately afterward, he shifted gears and began to talk about the need for U.S.-China cooperation, saying that he wanted to pay attention to the complexity of the U.S.-China relationship and the fact that the two countries and two societies are closely intertwined. "We're obviously going to compete in some areas, but we're also going to be working together in some areas because it's in our common interest, and countries around the world are signaling that there is a need for that." Blinken mentioned U.S.-China cooperation on fentanyl.
On June 27, local time, current U.S. President Joe Biden and former President Trump held the first round of debate on the 2024 U.S. presidential election (Visual China)
At the first candidate debate of the 2024 U.S. presidential election held last week, U.S. President Joe Biden's "disastrous" performance left Democrats "sleepless at night", and calls for replacement were high. U.S. allies have also expressed concern. During the conversation, Maloney referred to Biden's performance in the debate and the "leadership" of the United States under Biden.
Blinken tried to defend Biden, saying that confidence in American leadership has "risen dramatically" over the past three and a half years, and that Biden has "played a leadership role" in all different areas. Blinken also said that the world is "hungry" for U.S. engagement and leadership, and that "they see a president who is reinvesting in America — reinvesting in America's place in the world, reinvesting in these alliances, in these partnerships." ”
Despite Blinken's efforts to emphasize U.S. "leadership," stressing that more than 50 countries are "united in support of Ukraine, led by the U.S." However, soon some audience members "poured cold water" on him in the question session.
Lynn Kuok, chair of the Lee Kuan Yew Southeast Asian Studies Program at the Brookings Institution, noted that many countries in Southeast Asia have not taken a hard line on Ukraine. According to a recent poll in Singapore, 50.5 percent of Southeast Asian respondents chose China and 49.5 percent chose the United States if forced to choose between the United States and China. This is the first time since the survey added this question in 2020 that China has overtaken the United States as the top choice.
Acknowledging that the countries are not aligned, Blinken went on to point to the development of U.S. relations with countries such as the Philippines and Vietnam over the past few years, emphasizing that "the largest provider of foreign direct investment in these countries is actually the United States." He then defended himself: "We are not asking countries to make a choice, we are trying to make sure that there is a clear and, in my opinion, in most cases, a better choice." ”
Source: Huanqiu.com
Author: Observer.com
Editor: Deng Rumeng
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