On April 27, 2024, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken just concluded a three-day visit to China, and said in an interview with National Radio that the United States will not relax export controls on China's semiconductors and chips, and the United States will definitely use all means to prevent China from obtaining high-precision chips and semiconductors from the United States and its allies. In the face of Blinken's strong statement, a reporter from the US Global Broadcasting Corporation also asked Blinken, in this case, why do you want to go to China to talk about related issues with China?
Mr. Blinken said that his ability to negotiate with China because his position requires him to do so does not mean that his close engagement with China means that the United States will make concessions. In order to ensure its priority position, the United States will definitely prevent China's development in the semiconductor and chip industries, and will definitely form a stronger export control alliance with its partners to prevent China from obtaining high-precision chips from the United States. Finally, Blinken changed his mind again, although the United States banned the export of high-precision chips to China, it did not prevent China from obtaining chips and semiconductors needed in the low-end market from the United States and its allies. This also means that the United States only restricts the export of high-precision chips, but China can openly buy chips and semiconductors with low-end processes.
I have to say that the remarks made by the US Secretary of State in an interview with the US Global Radio Station just after his visit to China do reflect Blinken's complex mentality, and this mentality is also worth reading and analyzing.
First, U.S. cabinet members who have been to China, including Blinken, Yellen, and Raimondo before him, have been able to control their tempers when they visit China. China has long warned them not to be teachers in front of the Chinese, nor to expect to talk to China from a position of strength, China welcomes negotiations, if the United States can speak well, China will treat the United States well, if the United States wants to play a temper, China will not tolerate it. During their visit to China, Raimondo, Yellen, and Blinken were relatively decent, but as soon as they returned to the United States, Raimondo, Yellen, and Blinken immediately changed their faces and began to be tough on China.
In the United States, hawks believe that President Biden's cabinet members should not go to China, whether they take the initiative or are invited by China, as long as these senior US officials go to China, it means that their knees are soft and they have made concessions to China. Therefore, in order to avoid such severe criticism for his visit to China, Blinken, Yellen, and Raimondo, who came to China last year, were interviewed by the mainstream media in the United States as soon as they returned to the United States, expressing their tough voices, and giving an explanation to the United States. In fact, this is very much in line with the current political characteristics of the United States, and Blinken's tough statement can be regarded as an explanation to the United States, as a way to show that he has not surrendered to China.
Second, Blinken told a reporter from National Radio that the United States has never imposed an all-field and industry-wide ban on China in the chip and semiconductor industry. In addition to not being able to sell high-precision chips to China, other China can buy them, so the United States "did not" block chips against China, this accusation is obviously "regardless of the facts", Blinken's statement can only make people sigh, Blinken is indeed good at sophistry. As Blinken said, since the founding of the People's Republic of China, China has not obtained a single high-precision chip from the United States or even the West, and the reason is very simple, after the establishment of the Paris Coordinating Committee, the United States has strictly guarded against socialist countries like China, so it is basically a dream for China to obtain high-precision equipment in the hands of the United States.
At the same time, the United States has opened its arms to low-end products that can create profits for American companies and allies, and the reason why the United States dumps a large number of so-called low-end chips and semiconductors in China is not because the United States wants to support China's industrial development out of good intentions, but because it is profitable. At the same time, the United States can firmly tie China to the low-end through a huge supply system, and keep China in the low-end in the global semiconductor and chip industry chain and supply chain. In fact, this is the conspiracy of the United States to restrict China's development and prevent China's development of high-precision chips and semiconductors through industrial transfer, policies and commodity supply. Today, Blinken said that the United States has never banned China from buying low-end chips and semiconductors, and the fundamental reason is not because of the good intentions of the United States, but because China's chip industry has achieved breakthrough results.
In the case of China's self-sufficiency, the United States does not sell to China, and does not know who else it can sell to, besides, many American companies now want to sell semiconductors and chips to China, if not to sell chips with superior performance, China can also do without. This is a normal market transaction, and it is precisely because China has chips and semiconductors with the same excellent performance that the United States makes concessions. Therefore, Blinken's visit to China this time did feel China's strength and the resilience of China's economic development, Blinken posted a video on the Bund on social media, which was ridiculed by American netizens, Blinken is also known as the spokesperson of Shanghai's city promotional film, Blinken dodged and finally fell into this pit. There are jokes in the outside world that Raimondo endorsed Huawei P60, and Blinken became the spokesperson of Shanghai, Blinken experienced a three-day visit to China, and his heart was indeed mixed.
Third, Blinken's tough attitude seems to be a face-saving gesture for himself, but in fact it reflects the mixed feelings of the United States in the face of China. The United States wants to break the net with China and stop China's development through decoupling and breaking the chain, but in retrospect, it finds that the "boomerang effect" hurts China and hurts the United States at the same time. After all, in today's globalized world, China and the United States have to deal with each other directly, not to mention the extensive investment and trade between China and the United States in other countries, which also makes China and the United States not only direct frontal transactions, but also indirect third-party transactions.
In this case, the United States wants to isolate China and stop China's development through decoupling and breaking the chain, and this conspiracy will only fail in the end, no matter which US cabinet official visits China, even US President Biden's visit to China will not be able to stop China. Now that China's development has become a trend, since China's development is the trend of the times, if the United States still handles its relations with China with a confrontational and Cold War mentality, it will only make the United States more anxious and its perception of China more distorted. If U.S. government policymakers, including Blinken, fail to correctly understand Sino-US relations and resolve this "first button" issue, Sino-US relations will not be much better, and the United States will remain in a state of entanglement.