It could be discerned from Blinken’s discussions with China’s top leaders that the root cause for
the deepening chasm is related to trade, technology, territory and ideology.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s much anticipated China visit, which was stalled by an unmanned Chinese airship in the US airspace in February this year, took place on 18-19 June 2023. Blinken is the highest-level US official to visit China since 2018. During the two-day visit, he met Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, member of the politburo and director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Wang Yi, and General Secretary of the CPC, Xi Jinping. The US-China relations have been at the lowest ebb ever since the establishment of the relationship in 1979, and both have been wanting to steer the relations back on track as both are of the view that these need to be managed and stabilised.
From the optics of Blinken’s China visit, the ever-widening chasm between the US and China was clear. What a contrast from the red-carpet reception accorded to much despised and sanctioned Mike Pompeo in 2018 and even US billionaires like Elon Musk and Bill Gates who visited China in recent weeks. Even the head table Xi Jinping sat on gave the aura of the celestial empire receiving the tributary envoys from afar. And why not, when the meeting was sought by the American side? Not only the current visit, but Wang Yi’s “informal contact” (非正式接触) with Blinken at the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on 18 February 2023, and Qin Gang’s telephonic conversation with Blinken on 14June 2023 were all requested by the US according to a Sina.com article.
To a question as to “Why the US is so eager to resume exchanges with China?”, Liu Weidong, a researcher at the American Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, posits that the Biden administration hopes to stabilize the current Sino-US relations. The year 2023 is a “window of opportunity” (窗口期) before the US goes to elections in 2024. The stable Sino-US relations provide a “favourable bargaining chip” (有利筹码) to the Biden administration, as it can improve its image and status in the United States. Notwithstanding these reasons, Xi Jinping’s 35-minute long meeting with Blinken indicates that both sides wish to put the relations back on the track. Some of the takeaways are that two sides agreed to maintain high-level exchanges, to encourage the expansion of cultural and educational exchanges, actively discuss the increase of passenger flights between China and the United States, welcome more students, scholars, and business people to visit each other’s countries. However, there was no agreement to restore military to military communication. From the briefing of Qin Gang, Wang Yi, and Xi Jinping’s meetings with the US Secretary of State, and from Blinken’s own press briefings, it could be discerned that the chasm is so deep that bridging it would be too daunting a task.
Xi Jinping struck a conciliatory tone when he said that the vast earth is capable of fully accommodating（完全容得下）the respective development and common prosperity of China and the United States, and assured Blinken that China will not challenge or replace the United States. However, he did tell Blinken that “major-power competition does not conform to the trend of the times”, that they need to find the “correct way to get along with each other” (正确相处之道). The final paragraph of the briefing gives the impression as if the US has digressed from the agenda set by the two heads of state in Bali, therefore, Blinken reiterates Biden’s assurances to China that the US remains committed to returning to (重回) the agenda; does not seek a “new cold war”, does not seek to change China’s system, does not seek to oppose China by strengthening alliances, does not support “Taiwan independence”, and has no intention to enter into a conflict with China, and looks forward to high-level exchanges with China.
As a matter of fact, these are some of the most contentious issues between the US and China, and Xi Jinping has been flagging them time and again when talking about the “New Type of Major Power Relationship”, one of the pillars of China’s foreign policy in the New Era. In November 2021, Xi Jinping, during a virtual summit with US President Joe Biden, proposed the “three principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation” as a framework for the New Type of Major Power Relationship, aimed at avoiding conflict and confrontation or the so-called Thucydides’ Trap between the established and a rising power. As regards mutual respect, Xi Jinping argued that “the two countries need to respect each other’s social systems and development paths, respect each other’s core interests and major concerns, and respect each other’s right to development. They need to treat each other as equals…” This was perhaps one of the most candid explanations of the major power relationship to date, however, the US as ever, appears to look the other way, especially since President Donald Trump resumed office in 2017, and Biden administration has continued these policies, rather entrenched the competition with China in its strategic thinking. No wonder Qin Gang in his meeting with Blinken argued that China wishes to build a “stable, predictable (可预期) and constructive” relationship with the US.
Qin Gang, on his part, “solemnly” clarified the “core of China’s core interests” （核心利益中的核心）—the Taiwan issue, and termed it as the most important issue and the most prominent risk（最突出的风险）between China and the US . Wang Yi was more blunt to ask Blinken to make a choice between dialogue and confrontation (对话还是对抗), cooperation and conflict (合作还是冲突). He said that Sino-US relations reaching the lowest ebb is rooted in the US’ “erroneous perception of China” (错误的对华认知). He underscored that Taiwan’s unification with China is an “unswerving historical mission” of the Communist Party of China, and China has no room for compromise (妥协退让的余地) on the issue. Scholars such as Zhang Weiwei has argued that Pelosi’s Taiwan visit and Tsai Ing-wen’s US visit have put the unification of Taiwan on the fast track. Wang Yi further urged the US to stop hyping up the “China threat theory”, lift illegal unilateral sanctions against China, stop suppressing China’s technological development, and refrain from willfully interfering in China’s internal affairs.
It could be discerned from Blinken’s ten and a half hours’ discussions with China’s top leaders that the root cause for the deepening chasm between the US and China is related to trade, technology, territory and ideology. As regards trade and technology, the US is not averse to doing trade with China. In fact, trade with China was at an all-time high at $700 billion, however, as revealed by Blinken during his press briefing, “China’s unfair treatment of US companies was an issue.” According to Blinken, the US was not decoupling from China, but “de-risking and diversifying” and protecting US critical technologies, so that China cannot use them against the US. It was in this context that he remarked, “We are clear-eyed about the challenges posed by the PRC.” As for territory, he reiterated that the longstanding US “one China” policy has not changed, however, he also stated that the US “remains opposed to any unilateral changes to the status quo by either side.” Blinken revealed that human rights violations, including in Xinjiang, in Tibet, and Hong Kong were also raised with his counterparts. Finally, the ideological confrontation has also become inherent to the deepening chasm. The Chinese-style modernization and the whole process democracy that Wang Yi talked about during his discussion, demonstrates the war of narratives that China has initiated against the US-led discourse. Given the nature of the chasm on trade, technology, territory and ideology, from the US perspective, managing the ties would be a priority. From the Chinese perspective, challenging the US with “bottom line” and “highest limit” thinking would be a work in progress.
* B.R. Deepak is Professor, Center of Chinese and Southeast Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.