The US will use every tool to stop countries manipulating currencies and stealing US intellectual property, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during his speech on foreign policy on Wednesday.
"We will use every tool to stop countries stealing our intellectual properties or manipulating currencies," Blinken said.
In December 2020, the US Treasury formally denounced Switzerland and Vietnam as "currency manipulators", accusing these countries of deliberately trying to devalue their currencies against the dollar to gain the lead in trading. The Treasury has included China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Italy, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, India, and Malaysia on the so-called "monitoring list" with regard to potential currency manipulations. All these countries have repeatedly dismissed US claims as politicised, insisting that their monetary policies relied exclusively on domestic factors.
On Promoting Democracy Through Military Interventions
The United States will not promote democracy around the world any more through military interventions and forceful regime changes, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
"We will incentivize democratic behaviour, but we will not promote democracy through costly military interventions or by attempting to overthrow authoritarian regimes by force," he said. "We tried these tactics in the past. However we’ll intentioned, they haven’t worked. They have given democracy promotion a bad name and they have lost the confidence of the American people. We will do things differently."
In his first major speech, Blinken laid out eight foreign policy priorities of the Biden administration, including supporting democratic values and practices overseas by peaceful means.
Blinken vowed the United States will use the power of example, encourage others to make key reforms, overturn bad laws, fight corruption and stop unjust practices.
"The question is not if we will support democracies around the world, but how," Blinken said.
Other priorities include defeating the coronavirus pandemic, rebuilding the global economy, crafting a humane and effective immigration system, revitalising alliances, tackling the climate crisis, ensuring the United States’ technological leadership and confronting China.
