Recently, when US Secretary of Commerce Raimondo was interviewed by CBS News program "60 Minutes", he openly shouted: "Our chips are more advanced than China's!" 'We' include Taiwan. "[Chinese chips] are years behind what we have in the United States. We have the most advanced semiconductors in the world, which China does not have. We surpass China in innovation. ”
Raimondo's remarks are full of provocation against China, and she said "we" in two ways, one refers to the U.S.-led chip alliance, so it includes Taiwan, and the other is to deliberately provoke China, "we" refers to the United States, vaguely stating that "Taiwan belongs to the United States". This is not only a naked challenge to the one-China principle and an attempt to concoct "two Chinas" in the international community, but also a flagrant violation of China's sovereignty.
We can think that Raimondo's public provocation is actually to encourage Blinken's visit to China in an attempt to exert pressure on China from the side. According to the announcement of the White House, Blinken will visit China from April 24 to 26, first entering China from Shanghai and then flying to Beijing! Discussions include: the Middle East crisis, the Russia-Ukraine war, the Taiwan issue, the South China Sea issue, anti-drug cooperation, artificial intelligence, etc.!
According to US media, Blinken's trip will consist of five key members, including Blinken himself, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Allen, Assistant Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific Affairs Kangda, Assistant Secretary of International Drug and Law Enforcement Robinson, and Cyberspace and Digital Policy Ambassador Fike. From these people, we can also roughly guess the main topics of Blinken's visit to China.
From Blinken's recent G7 foreign ministers' summit, the three main issues of the mainland's wanton accusations are that the first is to persuade (warn) China to stop supporting Russia's defense industry. Second, China is required to solve the problem of "industrial overcapacity" on its own and not export it to the world. Third, he demanded that China stop exerting pressure on the Taiwan authorities and not "provoke" during Lai Ching-te's inauguration.
Therefore, Blinken's visit to China this time can be described as an "arduous task" and full of difficulties. Because each of these issues is impossible for China to make concessions and compromises. On the whole, Blinken's visit this time has at most had the effect of strengthening communication, and as for the actual results, there is no extravagant expectation! However, in order to force China to make concessions and compromises, the United States has once again come up with a killer weapon.
On 23 April, according to the Wall Street Journal, when Blinken arrives in China on 24 April, the US government will simultaneously announce a new set of sanctions against Chinese banks involved in financial transactions with Russia, with the aim of cutting off the ties between these banks and the international financial system! In other words, the United States plans to kick these Chinese banks out of the SWIFT system!
Whether or not to carry out this operation in the end depends on Blinken's negotiations in China. Last year, the trade volume between China and Russia exceeded 200 billion US dollars, and according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the media, more than 90% of the trade settlements between Russia and China are currently carried out in rubles and yuan. In fact, trade settlements between China and Russia have largely eliminated the US dollar. However, if the United States kicks the relevant Chinese banks out of the SWIFT system, it will still have an impact on our international trade.
At present, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the mainland immediately responded to this hegemonic decision of the US Government on 23 July, expressing its resolute opposition to and strong condemnation of it, and once again reiterating that "China's right to carry out normal economic and trade exchanges with Russia cannot be infringed upon"! I believe that with China's wisdom and strategy, we have already taken countermeasures against the US trick of kicking Chinese-funded banks out of the SWIFT system. The United States will only end up shooting itself in the foot, and Blinken's visit to China has lost its meaning in advance.