U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in China in hopes of securing cooperation on sensitive issues amid teetering Washington-Beijing ties.
The Biden administration seeks to engage directly with China to manage competition and discuss pressing global and bilateral issues. These include trade practices, regional security and Chinese exports benefitting Russia’s war machine.
As Blinken began the trip, his second to the country in less than a year, events put to the test the relative stability of U.S.-China ties since the November summit between President Joe Biden and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
On Wednesday, Biden signed a $95 billion aid package pledging military assistance to Ukraine, Israel and China-claimed but self-ruled Taiwan—a bill Beijing said “sends the wrong signal.” The legislation will also ban TikTok if its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, fails to divest from the video-sharing app.
In Shanghai, Blinken’s first stop, he met with the city’s Communist Party chief, Chen Jining, raising concerns about China’s trade policies and economic practices. Blinken emphasized that Washington “seeks positive economic competition with Beijing and a level playing field for U.S. workers and firms operating in China,” according to a State Department statement.
Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., with a written request for comment.
The U.S.’s $279 billion goods trade deficit with China and accusations of widespread Chinese intellectual property theft continue to be concerns for the U.S.
Following up on U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s efforts earlier this month, Blinken is pressing China to avoid saturating global markets with low-cost goods, a practice the U.S., European Union and others fear will hurt local manufacturers.
China has refuted this, saying that Washington seeks to contain China’s economic growth.
Blinken is also expected to press China to halt shipments of machinery, chips and other dual civilian-military use products the U.S. says are helping Russia rebuild its military industrial base as Moscow presses its advantage in Ukraine.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Tuesday said it was “hypocritical and highly irresponsible” of Washington to criticize “normal trade and economic exchanges” between Beijing and Moscow in light of the new $61 billion in U.S. aid for Ukraine.
The diplomat is also expected to ask China not to act provocatively in the lead-up to the May 20 inauguration of Taiwanese President-elect Lai Ching-te.
While in Shanghai, Blinken met with American business leaders and students from New York University Shanghai. He also attended a local basketball game between Shanghai and Zhejiang.
Discussions about stemming the flow of chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl, which killed more than 100,000 Americans last year, is also on the agenda, Blinken said in a video posted to social media.
Blinken arrived in Beijing later on Thursday. On Friday, he will meet with Wang and possibly with Xi.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.