Blinken: U.S. plans to contain China moves
WASHINGTON » Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China remains the greatest challenger to the United States and its allies, and that the Biden administration aims to “shape the strategic environment” around the Asian superpower to limit its increasingly aggressive actions.
“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,” Blinken said in a speech laying out the administration’s strategy on China. “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.”
The speech was the first public overview of President Joe Biden’s approach to China, and it is based on a much longer classified strategy that was largely completed last fall. American officials say that decades of direct economic and diplomatic engagement to compel the Chinese Communist Party to abide by U.S.-led rules, agreements and institutions have largely failed, and Blinken asserted that the goal now should be to form coalitions with other nations to limit the party’s global power and curb its aggressions.
“We can’t rely on Beijing to change its trajectory,” he said. “So we will shape the strategic environment around Beijing to advance our vision for an open and inclusive international system.”
China’s open alignment with Russia before and during Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine have further clarified for American and European officials the difficulties of engaging with Beijing. On Feb. 4, almost three weeks before the invasion, President Vladimir Putin met with President Xi Jinping in Beijing as their two governments issued a 5,000-word statement announcing a “no limits” partnership that aims to oppose the international diplomatic and economic systems overseen by the United States and its allies. Since the war began, the Chinese government has given Russia diplomatic support by reiterating Putin’s criticisms of NATO and spreading disinformation and conspiracy theories that undermine the United States and Ukraine.
“Beijing’s defense of President Putin’s war to erase Ukraine’s sovereignty and secure a sphere of influence in Europe should raise alarm bells for all of us who call the Indo-Pacific region home,” Blinken said to an audience at George Washington University.
Blinken emphasized that the United States does not seek to overthrow the Communist Party or subvert China’s political system and that the two nations — nuclear powers with entwined economies — could work together on some issues. However, Chinese officials will almost certainly regard major parts of the speech as the outlines of an effort at containment of China, similar toward the former Soviet Union.