(Shanghai) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday called on the United States and China to manage their differences “responsibly”, on the occasion of his second visit to the country in less than a year.
“We have an obligation to our people – and indeed to the world – to manage relations between our two countries responsibly,” Blinken said in Shanghai.
Arriving in China on Wednesday, the head of American diplomacy began his trip to Shanghai, where he attended a basketball match between two teams with American players in their ranks. He also strolled along the famous Bund promenade along the banks of the Huangpu River.
During this first step, Mr. Blinken met with the local leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), telling him that US President Joe Biden was committed to establishing a “direct and sustained” dialogue between the two countries.
“I think it’s important to emphasize the value – even the necessity – of direct engagement, of talking to each other, of exposing our differences, which are real, and seeking to overcome them,” Mr. Blinken said .
The secretary of the CPC Shanghai Committee, Chen Jining, for his part insisted on the importance of American companies in the local economy. “Whether we choose cooperation or confrontation, it affects the well-being of the two peoples, the two countries and the future of humanity,” he stressed.
Mr. Blinken is due to continue his trip to Beijing on Friday, where he is due to meet with Chinese leaders and is expected to plead for restraint, while a new president will be inaugurated on May 20 in Taiwan.
The archipelago is all the more likely to feature among the delicate issues likely to be raised as the American Congress gave the green light on Tuesday to a military assistance package of 95 billion dollars intended for Washington’s allies such as Taipei.
In Beijing, Mr. Blinken is also expected to raise American concerns about China’s trade practices, which Washington considers anti-competitive, a key issue for President Joe Biden in this election year.
Calm tensions down
The head of American diplomacy is also in China to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies, which have eased significantly since his June visit.
This was followed by a meeting between Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in San Francisco in November which led to a resumption of contacts between the two armies and cooperation in the fight against the manufacture of fentanyl, a drug of synthesis wreaking havoc in the United States.
Sino-American relations are at a “different stage than where we were a year ago, when bilateral relations were at a historic low,” a senior American official stressed before Antony Blinken’s visit.
“We also believe (…) that responsible management of competition does not mean that we should renounce taking measures to protect the national interests of the United States,” he declared.
Pressure against support for Moscow
If the Chinese do not directly supply weapons to Russia, Washington has accused them in recent weeks of delivering dual-use equipment and technologies to this country which facilitate its rearmament effort, the most important since Soviet times.
“If China wants to have friendly relations with Europe and other countries on the one hand, it cannot fuel on the other hand what is the greatest threat to European security since the end of the War cold,” Blinken said Friday after a G7 meeting in Italy.
Another source of friction is the law passed by the US Congress on Tuesday requiring that the TikTok application be sold by its Chinese parent company ByteDance, under penalty of being excluded from the US market.
In March, China called on Washington to “respect the rules of the market economy” and indicated that it would take “all necessary measures to preserve its legitimate rights and interests”.
reference: www.lapresse.ca