According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit China before May Day. This is his second visit to China during his tenure. The atmosphere brewing before this visit was not very good, both China and the United States did not have any good faces, the visitors had bad intentions, and the reception was strictly prepared, and the atmosphere could be said to be tense. Foreign media have widely speculated that the focus of Blinken's visit to China should be on the Ukraine issue. The United States will exert more pressure on China to cut off trade with Russia. The Washington Post even revealed that the US government is drafting a bill to kick some Chinese banks out of the international financial transaction system. Let Blinken bring this sanctions bill to China as an ultimatum. Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao also commented that the showdown between China and the West over the war in Ukraine is approaching.
According to other informal sources, Blinken's ultimatum this time not only includes sanctions against Chinese banks, but also cuts off Iranian oil deals, cuts China's photovoltaic and new energy vehicle production capacity, and controls semiconductor technology not to exceed the United States, etc. And the United States will not offer any quid pro quo for this. Blinken's own remarks verify the authenticity of this news. During the G7 foreign ministers' meeting, Blinken threatened that China cannot maintain good relations with the West while doing business with Russia. On April 22, Blinken publicly stated that the United States is still concerned about the Xinjiang issue, accusing China of genocide against ethnic minorities. To make such a voice before his upcoming visit to China is obviously not prepared to speak properly.
Many people will wonder if the Biden administration is crazy. For a nuclear power, the world's number one manufacturing country, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and a country that has twice suffered great losses militarily, the United States is so inappropriate that it cannot talk about respect at all. Rather than issuing such an ultimatum, why not directly declare war on China? I don't think Biden himself may be insane, but the entire ruling circle of the United States is probably on the verge of madness. At present, the United States is facing three major strategic issues, namely the war in Ukraine, the expansion of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and the strategic competition between China and the United States.
On the issue of Ukraine, the United States has just passed a new aid bill for Ukraine, and some people have begun to carnival, saying that Ukraine is about to launch a counteroffensive and Russia is about to collapse, as if American aid is a lifesaver for the world. But how much of the US aid can really reach Ukraine? When will it arrive? A cruel reality is that the amount is very limited, and the Zelensky government will not be able to hold out for a few days with this little money, and the Ukrainian army will not be able to reverse the passive situation on the battlefield with this little armament. And the allies have begun to centrifuge away from Germany, whether it is Germany or France, the aid to Ukraine is thunder and rain, and Russia still holds the initiative on the battlefield. On the issue of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Iran and Israel have just engaged in a very restrained confrontation, and the war has not expanded. The United States even took the initiative to praise Iran. But this means an embarrassing question for the United States: whether the situation will deteriorate, whether the war will expand, and the initiative is in the hands of Iran, not the United States or Israel. Moreover, Iran does not want to expand its attack on Israel, but wants to do it at its own pace and in its own way, which is also a thorny issue that the United States cannot control.
The third issue is China. The Americans believe that the issues of Russia and Iran are directly related to China. China's massive purchases of oil and gas from both countries have left them ample with the money to achieve their political and military ends. China's exports of manufactured goods to these two countries have maintained their normal social operations and industrial production, and supported their war capability. And China's great development in the green energy and electric vehicle industries has made the money that the United States wants to make now. The pursuit of high-end chips can earn the money that the United States wants to make in the future. Not only does China have more and more resources to do what it wants, but countries that do business with China can also get more and more resources, while the United States has fewer and fewer strategic resources at its disposal.
The three fronts seem to be out of control at the same time, and how can this not cause the US ruling circles to fall into a frenzy? They have long agreed that only by defeating China's development momentum can the future of the United States be saved. Before Blinken's visit to China, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had already come to threaten China once, hitting a soft nail before going back. Is Blinken planning to threaten China with American-style toughness one more time? We can assert that if the Americans do not speak well, the result will be disgrace and loss of face. Since its founding, New China has faced serious national security crises on many occasions. The Americans, with their military and economic superiority, never send a secretary of state to write a letter. They will pass a bill on their own, announce it and implement it. Since the Treasury Secretary and the Secretary of State are going to come one after another, it means that the Biden administration has counted the cards in its hand, and there is not much to show out. Today, the United States is not even playing the ally card. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has just concluded his visit to China, and French President Emmanuel Macron will follow, and Australia has been cheated hundreds of billions of dollars on the Akus submarine program. Judging from the statement made by the spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the Chinese side has long seen through the bluff of the United States. If China could be kicked out of the international banking system, then Trump would have done it a long time ago, so why drag it out until 2024. The road is different, and Blinken is afraid that he will have to run for nothing.