Trouble is, the Chinese also claim to act in the name of national security, for example to justify repressing human rights and harassing Taiwan. In short, it’s SOP: Play by rules made in the USA, and respect our need to protect national security. “Even as our targeted actions may have economic impacts, they are motivated solely by our concerns about our security and values.” On trade, the US seeks “healthy competition” with China and supports its economic progress-so long as China “plays by the rules.” The US will continue “engaging with the world to advance our vision for an open, fair, and rules-based global economic order.” She also suggested ways for both great powers to work together, such as on debt relief for Developing Countries and climate change.īut the speech still reeked of American self-righteousness. She sought to assure China that economic decoupling is a national security strategy, not an economic strategy directed at China. Treasury secretary Janet Yellen, one of several US cabinet secretaries whose visits to China had been on hold since the Chinese spy balloon incident in February, spoke April 20 at Johns Hopkins University Yellen stressed that the US wants a “constructive relationship” with China. Here’s the background, and the problems still ahead. At the close of the G7 summit in Hiroshima on May 21, President Biden said US-China relations are going to improve “very shortly.” He is probably referring to the flurry of resumed diplomatic contacts. The Chinese surely understand this, yet they not only had refused to meet they had rejected a US proposal to add hotlines for crisis communications, apparently on the argument that the US was not respecting China’s One China principle, so why trust to hotlines to ease matters? This failure to connect could determine whether the two countries fight or negotiate. The US defense department is just one agency that had publicly expressed concern about not being able to meet with Chinese officials. Until a few weeks ago, only John Kerry, Biden’s special envoy on climate change, had been able to meet with his Chinese counterpart. Among the many troubling trends in US-China relations these days is the lack of high-level diplomatic engagement.
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