US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken ended his visit to Beijing a few days ago without making progress regarding the long list of differences between the United States and China.
Blinken is the highest-ranking US official to visit China since 2018. His visit was originally scheduled for last February but was canceled after a Chinese balloon flew over US territory. Before the visit, Blinken announced that one of the goals of his upcoming visit to China is to “avoid miscalculations” with Beijing while seeking spaces of understanding.
But how can this be at a time when US President Joe Biden insists on deviating from what was written for him in advance, and described in a press conference the Chinese president as a dictator? This description brought Blinken’s attempts back to square one. It is true that Biden reiterated that he hopes to meet his Chinese counterpart, but Beijing had taken steps toward refusal.
Blinken’s visit to China was supposed to aim at opening direct lines of communication so that the two countries could manage their relationship to the way it was before the Ukraine and Taiwan crisis. This is in order for the world to avoid wrong results or calculations that could lead to an unjustified nuclear clash.
Beijing rejected the most important request that Blinken carried, which is to find a hotline between the military leaderships of the two countries. This request was supposed to reduce the risks of any possible clash in light of Washington and Beijing’s insistence on escalation, whether with regard to the China Sea file, which the latter sees within its territorial waters, or Taiwan, which it considers merely an autonomous island.
Relations between the two countries are deteriorating in various fields, which has raised fears that the rivalry between them will turn into a conflict over Taiwan, which China considers its territory. The two countries are also at odds on issues such as trade, microchips, and human rights.
Nevertheless, what worries China’s neighbors is its reluctance to allow regular military talks with Washington, despite repeated US attempts in this regard.
Anyone who follows the development of relations between the two countries will notice that America is the one who beat the drums of confrontation with China and Russia in advance. This is where the National Security Strategy of President Joe Biden’s administration sees China as the only strategic competitor to the United States that has the intent and ability to increasingly reshape the global order. Likewise, Russia poses serious threats to America’s vital national interests, and the growth of their partnership poses even more serious challenges. Therefore, China and Russia had no choice but to “deepen the strategic partnership” between them during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia.
It is noteworthy that arrogance is the same for all major powers. The arrogance of American power has been blatant since World War II. We have seen it in Vietnam, Cuba, and finally in Iraq. Russia exercised the arrogance of power in Chechnya, Georgia, Crimea, and the Syrian war, and is currently exercising it in the Ukraine war. As for the newcomer, China has actually moved from humility to positioning itself in all continents of the world, and this positioning began politically, then economically, and now militarily. America justified the invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of its regime by claiming that it would get rid of “weapons of mass destruction” and “reshape the Middle East”. Russia justifies the invasion of Ukraine by claiming the elimination of “neo-Nazis”, “disarmament” and “prevention of joining NATO”. And China justifies the partnership by saying that “China and Russia are establishing a new model for relations between the great powers and building them on the principles of non-alignment, non-confrontation, and the United Nations Charter.” Therefore, the fierce competition currently taking place requires permanent diplomacy to ensure that competition does not turn into confrontation or conflict. However, concerns remain about the possibility of miscalculations that may lead to bad consequences.
Dr. Hatem Sadek: Professor at Helwan University
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