US will engage China from position of strength: Blinken

Secretary of State Antony Blinken in his first major foreign policy speech on Wednesday would describe the US' relationship with China as the "biggest geopolitical test" of the 21st century and say that Washington will engage Beijing from a position of strength. In his speech, Blinken would spell out eight aspects of how American diplomacy will carry out the strategy of President Joe Biden, including plans to restore America's global leadership.

"We will manage the biggest geopolitical test of the 21st century: our relationship with China," Blinken will say, according to the excerpts of his speech released by the State Department. "China is the only country with the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to seriously challenge the stable and open international system - all the rules, values, and relationships that make the world work the way we want it to," Blinken will say.

Asserting that the US relationship with China will be competitive when it should be, collaborative when it can be and adversarial when it must be, the top diplomat will say that the US will engage China from a position of strength. "That requires working with allies and partners, not denigrating them. It requires engaging in diplomacy and in international organisations, because where we have pulled back, China has filled in," he will say.

During his tenure, former president Donald Trump, a Republican, pushed aggressively on all aspects of USChina ties, including with his relentless trade war, challenging China's military hold on the disputed South China Sea, its constant threats to Taiwan, the mass detention of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, branding coronavirus as "China virus" after it emerged from Wuhan in December 2019 and the Tibet issue.

Blinken has said that president Trump was right to take a tougher approach on China. "It requires standing up for our values when human rights are abused in Xinjiang or when democracy is trampled in Hong Kong, because if we don't, China will act with even greater impunity. And it means investing in American workers, companies, and technologies, and insisting on a level playing field, because when we do, we can out-compete anyone," Blinken will say. President Biden in his foreign policy address had described China as the "most serious competitor" to the US and vowed to confront Beijing on various fronts, including human rights, intellectual property and economic policy.

Trump's four years in power are regarded as the worst phase in China-US relations as the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) headed by President Xi Jinping struggled to deal with what Chinese officials say was the most elusive and unpredictable American leader ever.