U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will pay a four-day visit to China on April 23 and will meet with senior Chinese officials, according to U.S. media citing U.S. officials. According to sources, this is Blinken's second visit to China since June last year, and he is expected to discuss business and education issues with the Chinese side, and will also mention China's cooperation with Russia and related issues in the South China Sea.
Combined with the recent frequent hype of "Sino-Russian cooperation" by the United States and the request for China's assistance in sanctioning Iran, the purpose of Blinken's visit to China is obvious, which is to teach China how to do things. After the U.S. Congress was unable to pass the aid bill for Ukraine, the U.S. could only find a way to turn other countries' attention to China in order to shirk its responsibility.
As for the so-called "aid to Russia" and issues related to the South China Sea, China has acted frankly and frankly, and has no handle in the hands of the United States, and Blinken is unlikely to achieve any results this time. Therefore, while revealing the time of Blinken's visit to China, the United States began to prepare bargaining chips for Blinken's visit to China.
According to Lianhe Zaobao, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced that it is closely evaluating the requests provided by five U.S. labor unions alleging that China has "unfair practices" in the field of maritime logistics and shipbuilding, and has launched a Section 301 investigation into China's shipping, logistics and shipbuilding industries. At the same time, US President Joe Biden also urged a two-fold increase in tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum, citing "unfair competition", to "safeguard the interests of US steel companies". Biden also felt good about himself and told the media that the decision to raise tariffs on Chinese products "will not affect his relationship with the Chinese leadership."
Separately, US State Department Deputy Spokesman Patel said that the United States is ready to take further measures against a number of Chinese companies suspected of "supporting the Russian military industry." Combined with the topic of Blinken's visit to China, it seems that the US State Department is prepared.
In this regard, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce said that the application for the investigation by the United States is full of a large number of false accusations, misinterpreting normal trade and investment activities as harming US national security and corporate interests, and blaming China for its own industrial problems, which is not only lacking in factual basis, but also contrary to economic common sense. The spokesman pointed out that the US shipbuilding industry has lost its competitive advantage many years ago, and the United States has provided hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies to its own industry, but it has in turn accused China of "unfair competition," and the accusations made by the US side are completely groundless.
The spokesman said that during the Trump era, the United States also launched a Section 301 investigation against China and announced tariffs on China, which the WTO ruled violated WTO rules. The Biden administration has made a mistake again and again by launching a Section 301 investigation against China out of domestic political needs. China urges the US to stop its erroneous practices and respect facts and multilateral rules. China will take all necessary measures to resolutely defend its rights and interests based on the progress of the follow-up investigation.
The measures taken by the United States against China are purely out of its own political self-interest, and it constantly hypes up cooperation between China and Russia, just to cover up the mistakes of the United States on the Ukraine issue. And Biden's urging of measures against Chinese steel and aluminum is also aimed at winning the support of Pennsylvania steelworkers, not from practical commercial considerations.
Every time a senior U.S. official visits China, the U.S. takes steps against China in advance in order to gain a greater advantage in negotiations, but the results are often not what they expected. China will not succumb to US suppression, and naturally it will not give any special treatment to US officials who come to give orders. Almost all of the high-ranking US officials' visits to China have been empty-handed, and Blinken must also be mentally prepared for this.