According to a release from the U.S. State Department, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to China has been confirmed, and he will visit China from April 24 to 26 for three days, and will meet with senior Chinese officials in Shanghai and Beijing respectively. As for the news of Blinken's visit to China released by the US side, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also confirmed it.
It is also worth noting that compared with Blinken's visit to China last year, there are two differences in this visit, which are of far-reaching significance. First, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Blinken's visit to China was at the invitation of Wang Yi, a member of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs, and last year it was agreed by both China and the United States. One is that we have invited it, and the other is that the United States itself is coming, and we have agreed to its visit out of basic diplomatic etiquette.
Secondly, the three-day visit to China will have more agenda items for both Shanghai and Beijing. Last year, it was two days, and I only visited Beijing, which can be said to be in a hurry.
Blinken's visit to China can be said to be a logical step. At the telephone meeting between the leaders of China and the United States earlier this month, both China and the United States expressed their desire to continue to ease relations between the two countries, because the stability of China-US relations means global geopolitical stability, and the two sides are willing to maintain communication channels between the military and the top government officials, and Biden also proposed to send Secretary of State Blinken to visit China before the end of April.
Blinken
This is also the second visit to China by Blinken in less than a year. According to a U.S. State Department official, Blinken's trip will have three goals: first, to continue to implement the consensus reached by the Chinese and US leaders in San Francisco last year and ease bilateral relations, second, to communicate on global hotspot issues, and third, to manage bilateral relations responsibly so that the competition between China and the United States does not turn into conflict due to miscalculation.
In addition, the U.S. State Department also said that during Blinken's visit to China, he will also discuss the Taiwan issue with China, emphasizing that Taiwan's peace and stability are of vital importance to Sino-US relations, and the status quo in the Taiwan Strait should not be unilaterally changed.
However, although the United States has always stressed on the Taiwan issue that China cannot unilaterally change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, the United States itself has constantly set off round after round of "offensives" on the Taiwan issue. Prior to Blinken's visit to China, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a new aid bill on April 20, which packages a total of $95 billion in military aid, including $61 billion in military aid for Ukraine and $26 billion in aid for humanitarian crises in Israel and the Gaza Strip. In addition, the bill also includes $8 billion in military aid to the Asia-Pacific region, the most important of which is US military aid to Taiwan.
The bill has already been tabled in the Senate, where it will pass as early as next week. On the issue of military aid to Ukraine, the military aid bill has not been passed since the end of last year due to strong opposition from the Republican Party, and now it has been shelved for several months before the Republicans and Democrats have reached an agreement on this issue.
For the passage of this bill, Zelensky, Netanyahu and the leaders of the Taiwan region expressed their gratitude for this. Russia slammed this, and Medvedev said that the funds would be swallowed up by the US military complex, and Russia would continue to win on the front lines of the war. At the same time, Medvedev also pointed out that this bill is also an unreasonable interference in China's internal affairs for China.
Compared with the Russia-Ukraine war and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Taiwan issue is the core of China's core interests, and we emphasize this point every time we communicate with the United States. At the time of Blinken's upcoming visit to China, the US House of Representatives added military aid to Taiwan in the foreign aid bill, which is obviously to create bargaining chips for his visit to China.
China and the United States
For example, to put pressure on China and create a "condescending" posture of Blinken's visit to China, so as to gain more initiative in the meeting and raise its own asking price, which is also a consistent means for the United States to handle Sino-US relations. Often, before the Sino-US contact, they will choose to launch new sanctions, make a big fuss about issues such as the South China Sea or the Taiwan Strait, and so on.
All in all, the United States likes to play its "killer stick" trick against China, creating bargaining chips at the lowest cost in exchange for greater benefits. However, this approach of the United States is unlikely to be effective, because China warned the United States in person as early as the Alaska meeting that China will not accept the United States if it wants to proceed from a position of strength.
When China handles its relations with the United States, its principles and bottom line have always been quite clear and on the table, and there is a strong continuity. With regard to the relaxation and improvement of Sino-US relations, China has always shown a positive attitude and hopes to promote the development of Sino-US relations on the basis of equality and mutual respect.
Of course, there is a premise for this hope, that is, it requires the United States not to "face the face of people behind the back" and say one thing and do another, for example, on the one hand, it is deliberately suppressing China, constantly making small moves on China's core issues, and constantly hollowing out its political commitments to China; on the other hand, it stands on the moral high ground and expresses that the United States is willing to ease relations with China and pin the blame for the deterioration of Sino-US relations on China's head.
In view of this, if the purpose of Blinken's visit is to continue to ease Sino-US relations, or even hope that China will play a constructive role in Ukraine and the Middle East, then Blinken must show sincerity, especially on the Taiwan issue, stop arms sales and military assistance to Taiwan, and instead support China's peaceful reunification with concrete actions. At the same time, as the official media editorial said, we should give the US side a dozen "preventive shots" in advance, set rules, and not carry out this visit with any mentality of "subduing China", otherwise it will only have a negative effect.