A few days ago, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a year-end press conference. The U.S. Department of State is the most important foreign affairs agency of the U.S. government, so Blinken's speech this time must be about diplomacy, so Sino-US relations will not be absent.
If you think about it carefully, in this year, although the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and the Korean Peninsula and other issues have attracted more attention from the US side, a lot of things have happened between China and the United States, especially in the first half of the year, and once fell into a low ebb of dialogue, but since the second half of the year, Sino-US dialogues have begun to become more frequent, especially last month, China and the United States also held a direct meeting in San Francisco, and a certain consensus was reached. It should be said that such a change is a good thing, which shows that the US side has realized that it cannot do without China from blindly containing China in the past.
Summing up experience and forging ahead, since the US side has taken the wrong path in the past and has begun to find the right path, the US side should also do more positive things on China-US relations next year. But unfortunately, judging from this speech, the Biden administration in the United States has not really woken up.
At the year-end press conference, Blinken claimed that Washington will continue to deal with China "from an advantageous position", and he also continued to hype up the so-called "China threat", saying that in the face of the so-called "challenges" posed by China, the United States has "closer than ever" relations with the G7, the European Union and other allies.
To put it bluntly, isn't "proceeding from a dominant position" a dialogue with China from the perspective of strength? Isn't this a kind of game and confrontational thinking? And as early as the 2021 China-US talks in Alaska, the Chinese side told the US side that the US side is not qualified to talk to China from the perspective of strength.
Therefore, Blinken held a year-end press conference this time, declaring that the United States will continue to engage with China based on its dominant position. To a certain extent, it can be said that it shows US President Biden's intention not to knock China down and never stop. But then again, at this time, there are not many areas where the United States can still maintain its advantage over China.
When it comes to the topic of the Sino-US game, it can be regarded as a major event that has attracted the most attention of the international community in recent years, for no other reason, China and the United States are the two largest economies in the world at present, and the impact on the global economy is far-reaching. However, the US side just does not give up, but it is okay not to target it, but if it is targeted, it will expose the nature of the US as a foreign power and a middle force.
Here you might as well recall that the United States really began to contain China in an all-round way, probably in 2018, in 2018, emotionally, it seems that the United States' comprehensive strength is significantly ahead of China, no matter how you look at it, "China is unlikely to defeat the United States", at least the international community sees it this way. However, in the past few years, not only has the United States encountered a lot of problems, but it has also demonstrated China's strong heritage, and the United States has contained China in the past few years, which is precisely the years when China's national strength has been most amazed by the international community.
At the beginning of this year, the Biden administration was still trying to target China from the field of semiconductor chips, and let China not have access to advanced chips in the United States. Why? Because in addition to advanced artificial intelligence chips, in other fields of semiconductors, the United States itself believes that it is difficult to gain an advantage over China, and it is meaningless to continue to restrict cooperation with China except to cause losses to American companies.
It's good that the United States doesn't suppress China, but if it does, it will expose the fact that its own advantages are getting smaller and smaller. At present, what else can the United States have a clear advantage over China in the field of great power games? Speaking of which, I am afraid it is a military ally.
This is a fact, after all, China is not keen on alliances, and has little interest in establishing military hegemony, so there are indeed no military allies, on the other hand, the United States, including the United States, the NATO bloc alone has 31 countries, in addition to the "Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD)" and Japan, India and Australia to form a military alliance, and through "AUKUS" and the United Kingdom, Australia formed an alliance, roughly calculated, this is 36 countries, but Australia appeared twice, and the United Kingdom was originally a member of NATO, so there are a total of 34 countries, plus the Yoon Suk-yeol government of South Korea, which has become closer and closer to the Biden administration, and in order to disrupt the South China Sea, the military alliance between the United States and the Philippines has also deepened, and a full 35 countries are allies of the United States, which is the biggest advantage that the United States currently maintains over China.
Therefore, Blinken's mention of engaging with China based on a "dominant position" this time is, to put it bluntly, the United States urgently summons 35 countries to do it, and to a certain extent, this is Blinken's challenge again.
Of course, there is nothing to be afraid of, no matter how many allies there are, in the end, it will depend on the United States' own strength to play games with China, and the vast majority of these allies of the United States are countries that are difficult to pose a threat to China. Therefore, China only needs to continue to follow its own path, accumulate thick and thin, and actively defend its sovereignty, integrity and national security, and the United States will have no chance to take advantage of it.