Asia-PacificAnalysis

US and China emphasise a stabilised relationship

US secretary of state Antony Blinken addressed a number of contested issues in meetings with Xi Jinping and foreign minister Wang Yi during visit to Beijing

Officials close a curtain during a meeting between China's president Xi Jinping and US secretary of state Antony Blinken at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AFP via Getty Images

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Denis Staunton in Beijing
Fri Apr 26 2024 - 17:25

Antony Blinken’s visit to Beijing this week came against the backdrop of a cascade of negative stories about China in the United States and Europe. Congress passed a Bill that could drive TikTok out of the US, the state department accused Beijing of continued acts of genocide against Uyghurs in Xinjiang province and a foreign military aid package included $8 billion for Taiwan.

In Germany, an aide to a far-right politician was arrested on suspicion of spying for China and two political operatives in Britain appeared in court on similar charges. And on both sides of the Atlantic, complaints about the threat from Chinese imports of solar panels, electric vehicles and other green energy technology became louder.

In his meetings with Xi Jinping and foreign minister Wang Yi, Blinken addressed a number of contested issues, although he told reporters later that TikTok did not come up. But both sides were keen to emphasise the progress that has been made in stabilising the relationship between the US and China since last November’s meeting between Xi and Joe Biden in San Francisco.

The most important change has been the restoration of engagement at all levels, notably military-to-military contacts that have helped to ensure that there have been no near-misses between their aircraft and vessels in the South China Sea in recent months. But there has been an intensification of dialogue at other levels too, notably between think tanks and academics.

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[ Blinken expresses US concerns over Chinese supplies to Russian military ]

When Janet Yellen was in China a few weeks ago, her message was focused on manufacturing overcapacity, warning Beijing that the Biden administration would not allow a second “China shock” to destroy American industrial jobs. Blinken’s toughest message was on Ukraine and the role of Chinese firms in supplying “dual use” technology to Russia.

Washington acknowledges that China has not been supplying weapons to Russia but it is increasingly concerned about the export of products such as machine tools which can be used in weapons production.

Blinken said that China was supplying a Russian defence industrial base that is “churning out rockets, drones, tanks and other weapons” that Putin is using “to kill innocent children, women and men”. He said Russia would struggle to sustain its assault on Ukraine without China’s support.

China presents itself as neutral between Russia and Ukraine, although it provides diplomatic and economic support to Moscow and it regards the export of goods such as machine tools as legitimate trade. And it has not escaped anyone in Beijing that while Blinken condemns China’s indirect support for the killing of innocent people in Ukraine, his government is directly supplying the weapons deployed in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

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