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Showing posts with label China-US relations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China-US relations. Show all posts

Sunday, October 12, 2025

Goodbye trade war

 

China seems to be winning the tariff war even as Trump threatens to impose a massive increase of tariffs on Chinese imports in response to the republic's announcement of new export controls on rare earths. — Getty Images/AFP


South-east asia, once only a bruising trade war’s secondary victim, should now have asean showing its mettle as china wins.

BEYOND multiple global uncertainties are two core fundamentals: Us-china relations being the world’s most important bilateral relationship, and economics determining much of everything else.

This makes the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies pivotal to all. Multiple spheres in various regions are impacted accordingly.

That much is the main plot in today’s geopolitics. Problems tend to arise when the script is amended without warning, explanation or acknowledgement.

US President Donald Trump has sought a personal meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping since last year, but that will happen only next year. Why does it take two years for such a crucial event to occur?

It is precisely because of the summit’s importance that it has to take so long. Unlike MOUS, summits do not set the tone of an intended agreement but to cap what has already been agreed.

Transnational deals are too important to be left to formal summits with their pomp and pageantry. The serious business of negotiations by government experts and specialists differs vastly from the PR theatre of official photo opportunities.

The months and years between signalling interest in a summit and actually holding it are for senior officials to work out sufficiently agreeable terms to constitute a deal. That period of talks by officials began informally last year between the incoming US administration and China’s incumbent team.

It is a period now effectively coming to a close in ending the trade war, but still only unofficially. The basic agreement that is now done in all but writing has the US broadly conceding to China’s terms.

China is the only country that has pushed back on Trump’s tariffs, with resounding effect as recent events show.

After Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s grating condescension about supplying China with only Nvidia’s sub-par microchips, Beijing blocked all of Nvidia’s chips. Nvidia boss Jensen Huang said China’s own chip development is only “nano seconds behind” his company’s best products.

In agriculture, China has stopped buying US soybeans for supplies from Brazil and elsewhere. With US farmers devastated, China again demonstrated considerable leverage.

With Trump clamping down on countries buying Russian and Iranian oil and gas, India was hit with high additional tariffs, but not China. Instead, China raised Russian gas supplies with the Power of Siberia (POS) pipeline and now also POS 2.

China is also importing more than a million barrels of Iranian oil daily, amounting to almost 90% of Iran’s output. These major purchases were never going to be impacted by US restrictions.

Trump declared victory on Tiktok but it was a net gain for China. Beijing refused to sell Tiktok’s proprietary algorithm, the heart and brain of the winning platform.

A copy of the original algorithm was supplied to US investors, and China’s Bytedance owns just under 20% of US Tiktok – yet is entitled to 50% of US profits. US negotiators must have realised that was the most they could get from China’s tough bargaining position and accepted it.

China has introduced new restrictions on rare earth exports, launched an antitrust probe into US chip giant Qualcomm, and will raise port fees for US ships in return. In virtually every sector China is fighting back through tit-for-tat action and new policies.

If there is still any doubt that China is leading the charge of what remains of the trade war, its use of carrots and sticks to access the US market confirms it. Beijing has offered more than a trillion dollars (RM4.2 trillion) of investment in the US through Chinese companies admitted there.

These could include Chinese electric vehicle companies, which Trump last year said he would invite to the US to provide jobs. Only the stronger economy can dish out inducements of such proportions to the relatively subordinate economy.

Such is the substance of a negotiated trade peace. Ultimately, Trump is less concerned about what actually makes a trade victory than what can be interpreted and portrayed as his personal triumph.

He is anxious to gain snatches of a win between trade skirmishes, however fleeting or questionable, and China is only too happy to provide them to win the trade war. More of this can be expected at next year’s summit.

Meanwhile, Louis Gave of Hong Kong’s Gavekal Research has declared China’s trade war victory. South-east Asia should likewise flip the old script to its favour.

Asean countries are not just collateral economies subjected to the whims of a trade conflict. When China takes a beating, South-east Asia was assumed to be beaten also.

But the US still hopes to obtain from this region what it failed to get from China. To do this it needs to keep up appearances that it is winning over China as the centre of global supply chains.

Asean can call that bluff to protect itself.

Repated posts|:

  •   https://bbc.com/news/articles/crrj1znp0pyo Anthony Zurcher North America correspondent  and James FitzGerald   Watch: What could happen du...

Call for contingency plans in face of US govt shutdown

 


Saturday, April 6, 2024

Yellen’s trip eyes on ‘further stabilizing’ China-US ties; Washington needs Beijing’s cooperation to resolve national debt crisis

 US should speak nicely when seeking help from China: Chinese experts

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Photo:CGTN

US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, a US senior official who is believed to be pragmatic and less hawkish toward China than many of her peers, has arrived Guangzhou, capital of South China’s Guangdong Province, and kicked off her 6-day visit to China from Thursday to Tuesday (April 4-9), with Chinese experts saying on Friday that Yellen is trying to seek helps from China to solve US economic challenges, and they said US officials need to adjust its arrogant attitude and speak nicely when asking helps.

He Lifeng, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Vice Premier of the State Council, has met with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in Guangzhou. The two sides discussed in-depth key issues related to the global, economic and financial fields of China and the US.

He said the main task for this meeting is to implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state in their meetings and telephone dialogue, and seek to provide appropriate responses to key concerns in China-US economic relations, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Friday.

 “I opened meetings with Vice Premier He Lifeng for frank and substantive conversations on our bilateral economic relationship. It is crucial that the two largest economies in the world seek progress on global challenges and closely communicate on areas of concern,” Yellen said in a post on social media platform X on Friday afternoon.

On Friday, Yellen also had round-table discussions with economic experts and business leaders from the US and some other countries from Europe and Japan to discuss the economic situation of Chinese market, as well as opportunities and challenges linked to the Chinese economy. Yellen also attended an event with leading representatives of the American business community in China, hosted by AmCham China, and delivered remarks on the bilateral economic relationship. 

According to her released schedule in coming days, which expected to include meetings with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and senior Chinese officials who in charge different economic and financial sectors of China, analysts said Yellen’s trip eyes on further stabilizing the China-US relations as US President Joe Biden doesn’t want a fragile and uncertain bilateral ties with China, and Washington needs China’s cooperation to solve its headaches at home: a national debt problem and save US backward production capacity by adding pressure to China’s development in new energy technologies with the pretext of “overcapacity.”  

Jin Canrong, the associate dean of the School of International Studies at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Friday that “Yellen is an official who is different from the hawkish ones in Washington who actively push for confrontation with China, she is relatively pragmatic and moderate.”

In the phone call between the presidents of the two countries on Tuesday evening, Biden is probably asking for China to permit Yellen’s visit, as we can see Yellen kicks off her visit very soon after the phone call, which means that the US has prepared for the visit for a long time, and they are just waiting for China’s green light, Jin said. 

“According to this, we can have a conclusion that the US is asking for something urgent. Washington’s national debt problem could be the top of the agenda. Yellen might ask help from China in the field of monetary policy,” Jin noted.

The Congressional Budget Office warned in its latest projections that US federal government debt is on a path from 97 percent of GDP last year to 116 percent by 2034, which is higher even than in World War II. The actual outlook is likely worse, Bloomberg reported on April 2.

The CNBC reported on March 1 that the debt load of the US is growing at a quicker clip in recent months, increasing about $1 trillion nearly every 100 days.

Li Yong, a senior research fellow at the China Association of International Trade, told the Global Times on Friday that in this visit, the Biden administration is seeking the further stabilization of China-US relations in the presidential election year. “The two sides are expected to discuss about coordination on macroeconomic policy and trade, and this is not only important to China and the US, but also significant to the world.” 

But as a US official with pragmatic and relatively friendly image to China, Yellen this time presented her tough stance in some areas. According to the website of US Department of Treasury, “During her engagements in China, Secretary Yellen will advocate for American workers and businesses to ensure they are treated fairly, including by pressing Chinese counterparts on unfair trade practices and underscoring the global economic consequences of Chinese industrial overcapacity.”

Washington will not allow “a glut of Chinese production to wipe out American manufacturers of green technology,” Yellen has warned ahead of a trip to China, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

Li said the US should take the issue about “overcapacity” more objectively, because China’s productive capacity is determined by the global demand and the efficiency and market size of China.

Lü Xiang, a research fellow on US studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that Yellen’s expression is a bad signal for China-US trade ties, as this is implying that when the US development in areas like new energy and electric vehicle (EV) is facing backward or even failure, Washington is trying to contain China’s productive capacity to protect its backward capacity.

“This is very disappointing, as this is indecent for a US Secretary of Treasury to blame and contain China’s development in advanced areas to protect US’ backward productive capacity,” Lü noted. 

At present, China’s EV export and photovoltaic industry have unshakable status in the world market, the US’ measure to contain China in these fields will receive no outcomes, Lü said. “Chinese economic and financial officials can give Yellen a good lecture about how to mobilize resources in the market and whole society to develop a new industry. The EV industry is an example of the success of China’s market economy.”

Chinese analysts said that Yellen and the Biden administration should understand that, if they are coming to China to ask for help and cooperation, they need to adjust their arrogant attitude and speak nicely, and don’t ask for unfair competition to confront and contain China, who will never submit to pressure based on hegemonic logic. 

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202404/1310047.shtml

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Monday, November 14, 2022

China, US should chart right course for ties, push relations back to healthy, stable track; Compared with China, US has little resonance in developing world

 

 

Some high-stakes diplomacy already in motion, ahead of the key G20 summit that kicks off tomorrow (Nov 15) in Bali. Leaders of the world's two biggest superpowers have been meeting face-to-face. Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden have stressed the need to manage their differences and avoid conflict between their nations. 


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Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with U.S. President Joe Biden upon request in Bali, Indonesia, Nov. 14, 2022. Photo: Xinhua

Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with US President Joe Biden upon request in Bali, Indonesia, Nov. 14, 2022. Photo: Xinhua

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Xi, Biden meet as world seeks more certainties

Current state of China-US relations is not in the fundamental interests of the two countries and peoples, and is not ...

Chinese President Xi Jinping, during meeting with US President Joe Biden on Monday in Bali, Indonesia, said they should chart the right course for the development of bilateral relations and push bilateral ties back to the track of healthy and stable development.

Xi said during the meeting that China and the US have braced winds and rains in their more than 50 years of engagement, from the establishment of diplomatic relations until today. There have been gains and losses, experience and lessons. History is the best textbook and China and the US should take history as a reference and look to the future.

The current situation of China-US relations does not conform to the interests of the two countries and their peoples, now does it conform to the expectations of the international community, Xi said.

As leaders of two major countries, we should hold the helm and find the right direction for the development of bilateral relations and push ties to improve. Politicians should think about both their own country's development path and how to get along with other countries and the world, said Xi.

As leaders of two major countries, we should find the right way. Politicians should think about both their own country's development path and how to get along with other countries and the world, said Xi.

Xi noted the changes of the times are unfolding in an unprecedented way and human society is facing unprecedented challenges, and the world is at a crossroads. We care, and all countries in the world care about where they are going.

The international community expects China and the US to handle our relations well. Our meeting today has attracted worldwide attention. We should work together with other countries to inject hope for world peace, confidence in global stability and momentum for collective development, Xi said.

He expressed willingness to continue candid and in-depth exchanges with the US president on strategic issues in China-US ties and key global and regional issues.

Xi said he looks forward to working with the US president to push bilateral relations back on the track of healthy and stable development so as to benefit both countries and the world.

The two leaders met on the sidelines of the G20 summit to be held in Indonesia on Tuesday and Wednesday. Xi told Biden that though the two leaders have remained in communication via video-conferences, phone calls and letters, none of these can really take the place of face-to-face exchanges.

President Xi arrived at the island of Bali on Monday afternoon. As a guard of honor paid salutes alongside the red carpet, some local youths in national costume played traditional Indonesian musical instruments, while others performed a traditional Bali dance. Young students cheered in Chinese "Welcome! Welcome!" while waving the Chinese and Indonesian flags, CCTV reported.

According to CCTV, local people also gathered along the roads from the airport to the hotel where Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan were going to stay, waving the Chinese and Indonesian flags to express their warmest welcome on their arrival. 

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 Compared with China, US has little resonance in developing world: Martin Jacques 

 

G20 Indonesia Photo:VCG

G20 Indonesia Photo:VCG

 

The forthcoming G20 meeting reflects both positives and negatives in the current global situation. That it is being held in Indonesia, one of the largest developing countries, sends a positive signal to the world. As does the fact that ASEAN, of which it is a member, is non-aligned, opposed to blocs, and hugely engaged with China. But then there are the negatives. The US, supported by its closest allies, could seek to hijack the meeting for an anti-Russian tirade, poisoning the atmosphere and dividing the G20 at a time when the world faces the worst economic outlook since the 2008 financial crisis.

The first G20 summit in Washington DC in 2008 stands in stark contrast. It adopted, with overwhelming support, the largest fiscal and monetary stimulus ever undertaken, thereby averting the worst depression since the 1930s. In contrast to this remarkable display of unity, Bali will be a forceful reminder of how divided the world now is. In 2008, China and the US were on the same page. In 2022, the US now regards China as its sworn enemy. The meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden is likely to remind us of this.

Although the US has hitherto refrained from calling the present US-China relationship a cold war, this is patently the American playbook. The aim is to contain and isolate China, to undermine its links with the rest of the world, and thereby reverse the tide of China's rise. The attempt to cut China off from American semi-conductor technology is the latest example. Be that as it may, the US is finding it far more difficult to isolate China than it anticipated. The world is very different from what it was during the Cold War when it was divided into two hostile and hermetically sealed blocs.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is a very good example of how things have changed. The US sought to erect an economic blockade around Russia by means of economic sanctions. Europe went along with this but most of the world did not, a classic example being India. Economic sanctions haven't worked in the way intended. If the US can't economically isolate Russia, then there is zero chance that it could isolate China, which, as the world's largest trading nation, is hugely more important to the global economy than Russia.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict proved to be a highly successful recruiting sergeant in Europe for a closer US-Europe relationship. Since the end of the Cold War, there had been a gradual process of distancing between Europe and the US. This now came to a screeching halt, replaced by a new enthusiasm for the Atlantic alliance, combined with increased hostility toward China, with China and Russia portrayed as identical. But, in a crucial intervention, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently spelt out the importance of China to Germany's future. He went to China and met with Xi, the first Western leader to do so since the pandemic. He publicly rejected the idea of decoupling.

He then reaffirmed Germany's opposition to dividing the world into rival blocs. This goes against the grain of post-Ukraine trends in Europe, exemplified by Britain, the US' ever-willing and reliable lapdog. Scholz has drawn a line and indicated an important degree of continuity with Angela Merkel's previous approach to China. It will be interesting, in this context, to hear what French President Emmanuel Macron says in Bali during his meeting with Xi. The signs are that Europe's commitment to strategic autonomy has not been erased, but is now being quietly reasserted, that its relationship with China will continue to grow, and that it will keep its distance from America's cold war aspirations.

Europe will remain an important weathervane of geopolitical alignments. But, however autonomous it might or might not become, it will, for manifold reasons, tend to lean toward America. ASEAN is very different from Europe, but at least as important. It is a template for a new kind of international order. With extraordinary skill, it has managed to remain aloof from US-China divisions, pursue relations with both, while, given its regional proximity to China, being transformed by China's economic rise. It is the most interesting example of how a group of countries can negotiate a new kind of close and harmonious relationship with China. The US has wisely sought to develop a closer relationship with ASEAN, but, barring a huge misstep by China, it will never displace China's importance for them.

So what does the future hold? America will not be able to contain China. The latter will remain deeply connected with the world. China's greatest strength is the close relationship it has built with the developing world. America's alliance system, in contrast, dates back to the postwar world. It is rooted in the past. It is composed essentially of a bunch of declining developed countries, mainly European, plus Japan, Canada, and Australia. Compared with China, the US has little resonance in the developing world. This is an enormous strategic weakness. These are some of the parameters which will shape the future. How that future might actually evolve in practice, of course, is another matter. We live in very unpredictable times.

The author was until recently a senior fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University. He is a visiting professor at the Institute of Modern International Relations at Tsinghua University and a senior fellow at the China Institute, Fudan University. Follow him on twitter @martjacques. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn 

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Highlights from Xi’s speech at G20 Summit

 G20 Photo:VCG

 
 

Thursday, April 28, 2022

It’s an ‘American disease’ to make an issue of China in all aspects: Global Times editorial

Tesla's founder Elon Musk inks a deal to purchase Twitter with $44 billion in cash. Photo: website 


News about Elon Musk's Twitter takeover has sparked continuous heated discussions in the US recently. The focus of some, however, has apparently been off the track. A New York Times reporter tweeted to question whether Twitter would become one of the platforms Beijing will gain leverage over in the future. It was re-tweeted and commented on by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. There are also voices saying that Musk will have to seek a balance between his support for free speech and his business activities in China, and that China will exert influence on Twitter through Musk.

Many American media outlets didn't forget to "remind" people of the fact that Musk once "praised" China, and he encouraged people to visit China and see for themselves. At a critical moment when China and the US were locked in trade frictions in 2019, Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory kicked into production. In merely over a year, Shanghai-made Teslas have accounted for more than half of Tesla's global delivery. Musk has dealt a lot with China and spoke out some truths about China's economy, they are regarded as "original sins" of Musk by some Americans. Many link Musk's Twitter deal with China and raise it to the level of "risks" or "threats", which shows how narrow the room for pragmatism and rationality toward China in the US has become. Similar incidents have become common in the US. Making an issue of China in every possible way has already become an "American disease." In the face of China's growing comprehensive national power that is closing the gap with the US', the confidence of many political elites in Washington has been declining. And these people are showing anxiety and over-sensitivity toward China, not letting go of any opportunity to hype the "China threat" theory. After Musk acquired Twitter, some from American media even urged Musk to cut off his business ties with China to "guarantee freedom of speech." Such extreme overbearingness hilariously overlaps their weakness.

An interesting phenomenon is that many China security-related discussions contain various "private interests" if you look at them closely. Some businesspeople, such as George Soros, blamed China for their failure due to their wrong investment decisions in China. Others try to show their allegiance to the US. For example, Bezos often stresses security with a high-profile patriotic posture, but what he actually eyes are Pentagon orders that are highly profitable. More lawmakers and politicians touch on the China topic in an exaggerated and forcible way, through which they attack opponents as "weak." The "China Threat" is becoming a tacit business approach or a code to seek attention.

From the national perspective, Sinophobia which is currently rampant in American society is not fundamentally different from "Japanophobia" that prevailed in the 1980s and 1990s. In both cases, the US regards a "chaser" as competitor, on which the US tried to suppress by any means to ensure its own competitive advantage. But the end of the story will be different because there is no way that Washington can overwhelm China in the same way that it coerced Japan to sign a Plaza Accord. Chinese people do not believe in fallacies, nor are we afraid of evil forces. We will never yield to threats or coercion. As to words and deeds of forcefully making an issue of China, they remind people of an ancient poem: Along the Yangzi River, apes moan ceaselessly. My boat has passed ten thousand mounts briskly.

It must be pointed out that making an issue of China can't save the US. Instead, it will continue to intensify all the problems Washington is facing, be they domestic or external, and squeeze the room to solve these issues in the future. Even some people of insight in the US have warned that the excessive attention on undermining Beijing's advantages could make Washington neglect its most important tasks at home and push its foreign policies to deviate from its course even further. "American hubris is always a danger, but so is exaggerated fear, which can lead to overreaction," wrote US scholar Joseph Nye last year. "The US and China must avoid exaggerated fears that could create a new cold or hot war," he added. It seems that those who are sick are unwilling to take medicine.

The US is trying to oppose China in every possible aspect, reflecting the peremptory squeezing of reality by the US' anti-China ideology. But the reality is also resisting the ideological pressure at all times. The twist has distorted some US elites' mindset, making them fall into hesitation and division. However, the "China threat" is not the root cause of Washington's internal and external problems. Reality will make them understand sooner or later that win-win cooperation is the effective cure for their disease.

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Monday, July 26, 2021

China needs to play tough with US on virus origins tracing

 

Origin-tracing. Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

 By forcing the World Health Organization to put the focus of the COVID-19 origins tracing on China again, the US intends to kill two birds with one stone: help the US shift the blame of poor pandemic handling, and build a long-term strategic public opinion and political containment against China by tracing the COVID-19 origins. China's only choice is to fight back with more intensity.

The Biden administration's overall response to the pandemic has been no better than the Trump administration's. Breakthrough of the COVID-19 vaccine research was achieved during Trump's administration. The Biden administration's efforts to mobilize American population to fully get vaccinated have failed to fulfill its promise. And the epidemic is back on the rise. The Biden administration, which faces a growing risk of being punished in the midterm elections for its poor response to the pandemic, now has as much political need to blame China as the Trump administration.

The Biden administration is fully copying the Trump administration's line of political hooliganism: using every means to frame China. As the epidemic continues to rage in the US, Washington is finding it hard to directly shift its responsibility to China. Therefore they are playing the "COVID-19 origins card" fiercely, and comprehensively politicized a task that should have been scientifically advanced as nothing mobilizes Americans more than politics. Making Americans mad can make them stupid. Then they will feel that the ridiculous notion that China is responsible for US' failure to fight the pandemic "makes sense."

The vast majority of scientists and US media outlets last year publicly disapproved the allegation of a "lab leak" from Wuhan Institute of Virology. Recently, a large number of them changed their stance, and did not believe the conclusion that the link between the Wuhan Virology Institute and the epidemic had been basically ruled out after the WHO expert team visited the lab last year. A large part of the American scientific and public opinion community was apparently "fooled" by the Biden administration and became "political animals" to follow the politicians.

Trump's strategy was to teach Americans to hate China until they felt that the US government was lovable no matter how stupid it was. New cases in the US now reach 40,000 or 50,000 in a single day under the Biden administration, and it's going up. This is not a small number, even compared to daily cases during Trump's administration. The pandemic-response is still poor even with the vaccines. If American voters don't hate China very much, how can they not find out that they elected people to lead the country who are even more stupid than the last one?

The Democratic Party has only a one seat advantage in the Senate and a limited edge in the House of Representatives, the Biden administration's rapid descent into a lame-duck administration would be a joke if the Democrats lose both Senate and the House next year. As a result, the Democratic administration quickly acted recklessly. They inherited almost all the previous administration's China-bashing policies and went even further.

Tracing the origins of the virus is a good topic for Washington, because it's one that makes scientists frown. This is an area where political maneuvering is best done in a way that confuses the public: Since it's hard to reach a definitive conclusion quickly, the US can claim what it says it "right."

The aggressive and arrogant Western ideological bloc assembled by the US is now making the world lose basic moral rule and less open to debate. The coordinates of justice have been destroyed, the standards of good and evil have been tampered with. The US often talks about dealing with China "from a position of strength," but Washington itself in fact is in its relatively weakest position of strength, and they have even abused the definition of "position of strength."

The US leads the world in the epidemic death toll, but it still bosses around the world in the global fight against the pandemic. Washington is invincible because it is impudent. In dealing with the US on controversial issues, China must understand that there is no reasoning with the US at all. We only reason with the world, and we have no choice but to play hardball with the US.

We should demonstrate our determination and ability to confront the US and resolutely fight the arrogance of the US. The Biden administration's ability to deal with difficult issues between China and the US is much weaker than the Trump administration's. They already have far fewer resources than they had four years ago, and Biden himself has less decision-making power than Trump. On issues such as tracing the origins of the virus, we need to be tough with Washington. We need to make sure that whatever Washington says is in vain, and let the world see its rhetoric as a joke. The world will ultimately see Washington paying the price for its wrong China policy.

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Friday, July 23, 2021

US can’t unilaterally define ‘guardrails’ of ties with China

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Wednesday that Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman would seek to show China on her upcoming visit to the country "what responsible and healthy competition can look like." He also noted that the US wanted to ensure there were "guardrails" in the relationship and that competition did not spill over into conflict.

` From our perspective, there's nothing wrong with the literal meaning of these words. China does not want competition to spill over into conflict as well. It would be good for both countries and the world if the two sides could work together to set up "guardrails" to prevent the kind of escalation that is widely feared.

` Yet, experience suggests that Washington often says one thing and does another, using beautiful concepts as their brand of bullying and forcefully reshaping the meaning of those concepts. For example, Washington often talks about "rules," but the world has seen the US consistently commit the most brutal violations of the rules on which the United Nations system is based. The rules they talk about are actually a framework for protecting the interests of the US and its major allies. They are also a behavioral norm to force other countries to maximize those interests.

` If China and the US want to set up "guardrails" between their competition, they must follow the principle of equality and mutual benefit and follow the spirit of the UN Charter. Washington must not unilaterally set boundaries for China's behavior, nor can it advocate its interests to harm China's core interests even more.

` Such "guardrails" would be a unilateral guardrail for the US but a prison circled by a wire fence for China. If Sherman had come to China with such a purpose, the Deputy Secretary's trip would probably have achieved little more than a taste of Tianjin's delicious steamed stuffed bun.

` The "guardrails" between China and the US to prevent conflicts must include the following contents:

` First, the US should stop interfering in China's internal affairs, abandon its obsession with "transforming China" and refrain from narcissism with the outward aggression of American values. It is the fundamental principle for building a security wall between major countries to respect each other and refrain from interfering in each other's internal affairs.

` Second, the US military should not press closer to China's core interests, but should keep the necessary distance. Especially in the Taiwan Straits, the US should not give secessionists in the island of Taiwan a sense of military dependence and encourage them to stir up the tension. That would be very dangerous. In the South China Sea, the US cannot directly intervene in disputes. If it tries to influence the direction of the situation in the South China Sea through military pressure, it will lead to a high risk of conflict.

` Third, the US must not turn its competition with China into an aggressive suppression of China's development. Its attempts to gang up allies to keep China out of the world's major supply chains will eventually lead to a fundamental conflict with China if they go any further. A conflict like that would produce a wide divergence, destabilizing and creating long-term uncertainty in international relations, and ultimately shaping China and the US as life-and-death strategic enemies.

` In general, the US cannot attempt to attack China's system, or divide China, or block its development path. These are the foundations of the "guardrails" between the two countries. If the US breaks these three rules, it is proactively attacking China, not competing with it. And China will fight back no matter the cost.

` So, the US needs to have basic honesty. It should not try to deceive itself. For example, if the authorities on the island of Taiwan under Washington's support or instigation cross the redline of "independence" - the People's Liberation Army will definitely stop it with force. If the US intervenes, a military confrontation between China and the US will take place.

` China has no intention to confront the US, but it is a national principle for China to defend its core interests. The US can't unilaterally define the "guardrails" between the two countries out of its own interests, because they need to be defined by both China and the US to advance the interests of both countries. The US has extensive experience in international relations, and hopefully, Washington will not be confused about the core problem of how to engage in competition, instead of conflict, with Beijing.

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Results of Sherman’s China visit depend on US attitude

 US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will visit North China's Tianjin from July 25 to 26, a visit arranged after the US proposal to exchange views on China-US relations, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry late Wednesday night. Sherman is scheduled to visit Japan, South Korea and Mongolia from July 18 to 25. Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is leaving for his trip to Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines on Friday.

` This time, the US is taking the initiative in proposing exchange of views on China-US relations. This shows that the Biden administration has made some progress in evaluating its China policy and may begin to implement these policies next.

` Washington is eager to communicate with Beijing because it is increasingly aware of the need to cooperate with China on many issues.

` The US may also want to use Sherman's visit to pressure China on issues such as Xinjiang, the Taiwan Straits, and South China Sea.

` US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a briefing on Tuesday that the US will engage with China "when it's in our interests to do so, and we do remain interested in doing so in a practical, substantive and direct manner." During Sherman's talks with her Japanese and South Korean counterparts in Tokyo on Wednesday, the three sides agreed that they oppose "any unilateral attempts to change the status quo" in the East China Sea and the Taiwan Straits.

` This is a typical feature of the US' current China policy. "Our relationship with China will be competitive when it should be, collaborative when it can be, and adversarial when it must be," as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in March.

` Despite pressuring China on Xinjiang, the Taiwan Straits and the South China Sea, Washington may also believe it won't affect pragmatic cooperation with Beijing in some other areas.

` However, China will make its principles clear during Sherman's upcoming visit. China focuses on cooperation, controls competition, and avoids confrontation in handling China-US relations.

` During the recent weeks, Washington has intensified its blame on China in terms of the so-called massive cyberattack. It has also issued a blanket warning to US firms about the risks of doing business in Hong Kong, and passed a bill that would ban all goods from or made in Xinjiang unless importers can prove they weren't made with "forced labor." We must show the US that China firmly safeguards its sovereignty, security and development. We firmly oppose the US' interfering in China's internal affairs and harming our national interests. These are all basic principles that China will make clear.

` During Sherman's visit, China and the US may have practical discussions on some specific issues including climate change, Afghanistan, Iran and improving the working environment of diplomatic personnel and institutions in the two countries. China will make a very thorough clarification on its principles, while also leaving some room for China-US cooperation on specific issues.

` Defense Secretary Austin previewed his Southeast Asian trip on Wednesday, saying that he will, "make clear where we stand on some unhelpful and unfounded claims by China in the South China Sea." Clearly, the South China Sea will be a key point of his trip. Vietnam and the Philippines are two countries that Washington wants to rope in the most in terms of the South China Sea issue.

` Together with Sherman's Asia tour, the US aims at showing Asian countries that it will continue attaching importance to the region, and making it clear to China that it will carry on the Indo-Pacific Strategy to pressure China.

` After Chinese top diplomats resolutely refuted the US' rude manners during Alaska talks in March, the two countries almost haven't had any face-to-face senior-level dialogues since. The US Department of State said Sherman's visit is "part of ongoing US efforts to hold candid exchanges" with China in order to "advance US interests and values and to responsibly manage the relationship."

` Nonetheless, the US' attitude won't be different from that during Alaska talks. Strategic competition with China is still the keynote of US' China policy. This won't change. Thus, the US will not stop interference in China's internal affairs, and will continue piling pressure on Xinjiang and other issues.

` The "candid exchanges" are possible if the two sides exchange views frankly. As for "responsibly managing the relationship," it may be hard to do. This will depend on whether Washington plans to properly handle its ties with Beijing. If Washington's China policy is dominated by the use of pressure and rhetoric of competition, then relations between the two countries will only worsen.

` After White House Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific Kurt Campbell said in early July that China and the US can "coexist in peace," Washington is now proactively seeking dialogue with Beijing. But this does not necessarily mean Washington is becoming more rational toward Beijing. For example, Campbell said, "We do not support Taiwan independence," yet the US has sent more military aircraft to the island. Similarly, the US is calling for dialogue while it is still trying to impose more pressure on China.

` On many issues, Washington says one thing and does another, making it unreliable.

` The article was compiled by Global Times reporter Li Qingqing based on an interview with Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

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