In a much-anticipated speech, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday detailed the Joe Biden administration's strategy on China.
Blinken's speech at George Washington University in Washington DC comes days after President Biden had met with the leaders of India, Australia and Japan in Tokyo during the Quad summit.
Blinken noted that despite the ongoing war in Ukraine, the US would remain focused on China as the “most serious long-term challenge to the international order”.
Blinken noted China is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do it.
“China is also integral to the global economy and to our ability to solve challenges from climate to Covid. Put simply, the United States and China have to deal with each other for the foreseeable future. That's why this is one of the most complex and consequential relationships of any that we have in the world today,” he said.
Blinken noted the Biden administration's strategy for China for this decade could be summed up in three words—invest, align, compete. “We will invest in the foundations of our strength here at home—our competitiveness, our innovation, our democracy. We will align our efforts with our network of allies and partners, acting with common purpose and in common cause. And harnessing these two key assets, we’ll compete with China to defend our interests and build our vision for the future,” Blinken said.
“China’s transformation is due to the talent, the ingenuity, the hard work of the Chinese people. It was also made possible by the stability and opportunity that the international order provides. Arguably, no country on earth has benefited more from that than China. But rather than using its power to reinforce and revitalise the laws, the agreements, the principles, the institutions that enabled its success so that other countries can benefit from them too, Beijing is undermining them. Under President Xi, the ruling Chinese Communist Party has become more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad,” he said.
