After Blinken arrived in Shanghai, there was no red carpet, no grand ceremony, regular reception. In less than 24 hours, the Chinese side received a distinguished guest in Beijing at a high level, sending an unusual signal to the outside world. Who is this guest and what is the signal?
On the afternoon of April 24, Blinken's special plane arrived in Shanghai to start a three-day visit to China.
According to the itinerary, on the 26th, Blinken arrived in Beijing for talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The topics of Blinken's visit to China have long been decided, and the top priority is the Russia-Ukraine issue, the Middle East issue, the Taiwan Strait issue, the South China Sea issue, and other issues.
Yellen slandered China's "overcapacity" and squeezed the market for American and Western products, trying to force China not to export products and parts to the Russian military, and the main purpose of Blinken's visit to China is also to prevent China from exporting dual-use products to Russia. In a word, the United States wants to drive a wedge between China and Russia.
But Blinken's visit to China comes at a time of tension in the South China Sea and tensions between China and the United States. In mid-April, the United States deployed an intermediate-range ballistic missile system in the Philippines sufficient to cover China's southeastern and southern China, and then on the 22nd, the United States and the Philippines dispatched 16,000 troops in the South China Sea to conduct the so-called "shoulder-to-shoulder" joint military exercise, which mainly exercised the armed seizure of islands and the sinking of enemy ships, and the exercise lasted until May 10. If the United States hopes that it can use this to force China to make concessions for Blinken's visit, it would be thinking too much.
Shoulder to shoulder military exercises
With the United States taking the initiative to aggravate the situation in the Asia-Pacific region, the purpose of Blinken's visit to China can only be said to be very suspenseful. Sino-Russian relations are normal economic and trade relations, we have not exported weapons to Russia, our consistent position on the Ukraine issue is fair, objective and just, hoping that peace talks can end the war at an early date, but the United States has been adding fuel to the fire and supporting weapons to Ukraine, a few days ago, the United States approved the provision of $60.8 billion in military aid to Ukraine.
This is obviously hoping that Ukraine will continue to fight, compared to the mainland's position, the United States' intentions are sinister, and the United States is uniting the G7 countries to put pressure on China not to aid Russia, but the relationship between China and Russia does not need to be ignored by the outside world.
On the Taiwan Strait issue and the South China Sea issue, China will not make concessions, the Taiwan issue is China's core interest and China's internal affair, and we will certainly complete reunification; the United States' hope to maintain the status quo is just a dream, and the South China Sea issue concerns the mainland's territory and sovereignty, as well as maritime rights and interests, and we will not make concessions. The United States hopes that the Philippines and the DPP authorities will create hot spots and delay China's development.
In addition, China and the United States have many differences in the fields of economy, trade, science and technology. At present, China and the United States are fighting but not breaking down, and it depends on whether the United States has the sincerity to improve relations between the two countries. During Blinken's visit to China, the arrival of a distinguished guest from Southeast Asia played a crucial role in the situation in the South China Sea.
On April 23, at the invitation of Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the Malay Foreign Minister paid an official visit to China, where he reached an important consensus with the Chinese high-level and the cooperation and exchanges between China and Malaysia. Because the Malay foreign minister's visit to China is an official visit, the specifications are much higher than Blinken's regular visit, after all, one is to take the initiative to be invited, and the other is to give Biden face.
Malaysia is an important ASEAN country and has always maintained friendly relations with the mainland, and the mainland is the largest trading partner of ASEAN countries, and among the 11 ASEAN countries, except for the Philippines, many other countries have signed the "Code of Conduct in the South China Sea".
On the occasion of the Malay Foreign Minister's visit to China, the day before Blinken's visit to China and the day after the military exercises with the United States and the Philippines, under the tense situation in the South China Sea, he conveyed to the outside world that our propositions and importance in the South China Sea, and at the same time attaching importance to Malay's visit to China, is also a blow to the Philippines, which follows the United States as the vanguard of anti-China urgency, making the situation in the South China Sea tense and unstable, and has been collectively isolated by ASEAN countries.
Of course, there is also the meaning of knocking Blinken, the South China Sea is related to China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, and we will not make concessions, and at the same time, it is also a warning to the United States and the Philippines not to think that the so-called "deterrence by force" can make China make concessions, because this kind of deterrence is meaningless at China's doorstep. The Philippines actively cooperates with the United States to contain China, knowing that this is the Asia-Pacific region, too far away from the United States, and geopolitically, ASEAN countries are inseparable from China.
Of course, the Chinese side received the Malay foreign minister in a high-profile manner, hoping that Blinken would understand what it meant. The United States should also be clear about our position and principles, and if we talk about issues with sincerity, we welcome them, and if we still talk about them in the same way and force China to make concessions, we should not be respectful. What's more, even if the United States makes any commitments, we will only wait and see what it does, and we will not budge an inch on the South China Sea issue.
Resources
Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohammed will visit China Xinhua News Agency
Blinken embarks on his second visit to China during his tenure, what is the possible outcome of the talks between China and the United States? Global Times
Foreign Ministry official on U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to China: For this visit, China mainly focused on five major goals Global Network
Sun Taiyi: Blinken's visit to China can be summed up in 16 words