Top US Officials Make Beeline for China 'Because 2024 Elections Are Coming Up'
© AP Photo / Andy Wong
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US-China tensions have continued unabated, spreading to the spheres of the economy and technology, as well as manifesting themselves in the Indo-Pacific region, despite a recent flurry of diplomatic activity between the two countries framed by Washington as an attempt to stabilize the relationship via talks.
Chinese-American relations have been characterized by various contradictions for a long time, with the main problem being that the United States "says one thing and does another," Yang Mian, a professor at the Institute of International Relations, Communication University of China, told Sputnik.
Senior US officials have lately made a bee-line for China because they “are thinking about next year's elections, and need to show that they can control the deteriorating situation with Beijing," Yang underscored. Washington is constantly putting pressure on its vital trade partner, Beijing, which it defines as a 'long-term competitor', while wielding rhetoric about not seeking complete 'decoupling' with the Asian powerhouse, he added.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with Wang Yi, Chinese Central Foreign Affairs Office Director, on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers meeting in Indonesia's capital Jakarta on July 13. This was the second meeting between Blinken and Wang Yi this month. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also embarked upon a China foray, while the US President's Special Envoy for Climate, John Kerry is gearing up for a visit to the Asian juggernaut.
But while spouting ‘cooperation’ rhetoric, the US officials have doubled down on assurances, as was the case most recently with Kerry, that they rule out making any “concessions” to Beijing. Intentions to ostensibly fix US-China ties have also come interspersed with freshly-lobbed accusations at Beijing.
Climate and environmental issues appear to be the only topic on which exchanges between China and the United States are fairly unencumbered, the professor emphasized. Kerry had previously also served as a US envoy at talks with China, but after the relations soured, the talks were frozen. Now, as we witness Washington dispatching Kerry to Beijing again, we can speculate that circumstances are forcing the US to take such steps, Yang Mian pointed out.
“Now we see the United States, especially the Biden administration, on the one hand, declaring that they are in 'competition’ with China, while on the other hand, emphasizing the need to ‘protect national security.’ They explain their position as follows: they are in a rivalry with China because they want to prevent us [China] from becoming a threat to the United States, and not because they want to destroy us,” the professor remarked.
He added:
“What always happens in Sino-US relations is that when the Americans go back home [after visits to China], they immediately publish a lot of critical statements, but when they return, they again try to fool and appease China. Because the US needs to maintain a more or less acceptable relationship with China.”
At this point, it is worth recalling how shortly after Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a long-awaited trip to Beijing to meet with senior Chinese diplomats, including President Xi Jinping, US President Joe Biden publicly called Xi a “dictator".
"Of course, we also need to meet and talk with them," Yang Mian acknowledged. However, there is no denying the fact that whether top American officials confer with top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi, Foreign Minister Qin Gang or other high-ranking representatives of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the US position does not change significantly, it is the position of “containing China,” he said.
Indeed, the US has been doing everything from dipping into the tool box of trade-related weapons, like restrictions on exports of US goods and services, the persistence of import duties on Chinese goods, sanctions on China’s technology, to bolstering US and NATO operations in the Pacific while peddling the "China threat" narrative.
Now, in specific aspects, the US strategy and methods may vary a little, because now they need China, and, therefore, purely symbolically and outwardly, they can appear to “tone down” the rhetoric, Yang said.
Ahead of the 2024 presidential elections, the Washington-based politicians hope to demonstrate to the voters that "they can control the crisis tendencies in Sino-American relations, smooth out contradictions, and avert war..." So now the Sino-US summits are taking place “not because there has been some fundamental change in the US, but because the elections are coming up,” Yang Mian stated. For all the flurry of diplomatic activity, no key issues have been resolved. The US may take a step back in its policy towards China, but this does not mean that there have been any fundamental changes, argued the professor. While talks might bring certain minor successes, China remains at odds with the United States “in matters related to Taiwan, high technology, weapons, and NATO,” Yang Mian emphasized, concluding:
“Sino-US relations are already worse than ever… if there is a sudden conflict, [election] rivals will use this against them [current administration] next year. If things go downhill, they will definitely be faulted for having shown weakness towards China."
