Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to the media after talks between the U.S. and China in Anchorage, Alaska, on March 19.
Photograph:
pool / Reuters
That was a scolding that a senior Chinese official last week in Anchorage said to senior Biden government officials at their first meeting. This is the new reality in US-China relations, as opponents seek to see if they can exploit President Biden as they did with Barack Obama.
The two sides agreed on two minutes of initial comments each. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was short and hospitable, although he said the United States has “deep concerns about China’s actions, including in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyber attacks in the United States and economic coercion against our allies. Each of these actions threatens the rule-based order that maintains global stability. “
The director of the Central Committee on Foreign Affairs of China, Yang Jiechi, took a 20-minute break (including translation) on the superiority of “Chinese-style democracy” and the sins of America. The latter included a reference to the Black Lives Matter, human rights issues, and that the US “exercised far-reaching jurisdiction and suppression and overburdened national security through the use of force or financial hegemony”.
Mr. Yang added: “Therefore, we believe that it is important for the United States to change its own image and to stop promoting its own democracy in the rest of the world. Many people in the United States, in fact, have little confidence in America’s democracy. ”As we have already noted, the Chinese like to echo the criticisms that the American media made of the United States.
Mr. Blinken replied that the US “recognizes our imperfections, recognizes that we are not perfect, we make mistakes, we have reversals, we take steps backwards”, but then we make progress again. This is true, but unnecessarily defensive after a public attack by a foreigner on US interests and values.
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This is just a meeting, but it was a milestone for the most important bilateral relationship in the world. News is leaking that private negotiations on the Chinese side have been as difficult as public comment. The Chinese are making it clear that after the Trump years, Beijing wants a return to Obama’s accommodation policy to China’s global advances.
That means weak objections to China’s cyber and intellectual property theft. It means ending the US policy of building an alliance of democracies in Asia that opposes Chinese aggression. And, above all, it means ending criticism or sanctions against China for violating its treaty with Britain on Hong Kong, threatening an invasion of Taiwan or arresting Uighers in Xinjiang’s re-education camps.
In its first two months, the Biden government was strong in its rhetoric about all of this. Mr. Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan orchestrated a series of well-done meetings with Indo-Pacific allies before the Anchorage meeting. They also struck a deal on financing the deployment of American troops to South Korea.
But the real challenge will be how well it will respond to opponents’ aggressive designs in Beijing, Moscow and Tehran. The tough guys from these capitals remember how they were able to advance when Biden’s liberal internationalists were in power for the last time in the Obama administration. Russia grabbed Crimea, invaded eastern Ukraine and moved to Syria. China snatched islands for military bases in the South China Sea and stole secrets from the United States with impunity. Iran has spread proxy terrorism across the Middle East and has plundered John Kerry in the nuclear deal.
These regional powers are looking to see if this new US administration is Obama II. Tehran’s renewed courtship to return to the failed 2015 nuclear deal is a sign of weakness. Vladimir Putin will certainly take some action against US interests in response to Biden’s affirmative response last week to the question of whether the Russian is a “killer”.
The biggest test will be China, which is growing in confidence that it has a strategic advantage over declining America. If you don’t believe this, read Mr. Yang’s comments in Anchorage. The thinking of the powers in Beijing today is no different from that of the Soviet Union in the 1970s, when the American decline was in vogue and the Communists were looking to advance the world. Except that China today has much more economic strength.
Taiwan’s future may be the most difficult challenge. As a center for global semiconductor production, the island is crucial to the economic interests of the United States, as well as being a democratic ally. Chinese President Xi Jinping has made it clear that retaking Taiwan is a priority, and China’s military is building a force capable of a rapid-attack invasion. Mr. Xi will be eager to exchange promises on climate change for the US’s acquiescence with Taiwan.
This is a dangerous time, as the world’s dishonest powers seek to test the Biden government’s determination. The Anchorage lecture is a warning to be taken seriously.
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Published on March 22, 2021, print edition.