On the occasion of the high-level visit of the Chinese side to Europe, a special US plane arrived in China. According to the official information of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on May 6, the same day that the Chinese high-level Chinese side and French President Emmanuel Macron held talks at the Elysee Palace, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu met with visiting US Deputy Secretary of State Verma.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Verma and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu
Not long ago, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited China, and now, after more than half a month, the Biden administration has sent senior officials to China again for exchanges.
First of all, from the perspective of timing, many European countries have intensively engaged in high-level diplomacy with China. In the past, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz personally led a large-scale business delegation to visit China to seek cooperation, and then the heads of state of France, Hungary and Serbia handed over invitations and sincerely invited the Chinese side to visit.
Seeing that China and Europe are getting closer and closer, the United States has begun to mumble in its heart again, and now on the Ukraine issue, the United States also needs Europe as a capable partner, if Europe is successfully persuaded by China and refuses to follow the United States to fire the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, then the layout of the Biden administration will fall short, so while China and Europe are intensively exchanging, the United States also brushes its presence from time to time.
U.S. President Joe Biden
Second, from the perspective of the U.S.-China relationship itself, the United States needs to cooperate with China on many issues, which is why the Biden administration has frequently sent senior officials to visit China, and especially emphasized that it has no intention of "decoupling" from China.
On climate issues, for example, the Chinese and US sides agreed that China's climate envoy will lead a 10-day delegation to the United States from May 7 to 16, during which he will meet with US President Joe Biden's climate policy adviser.
From this point of view, the US Deputy Secretary of State's visit to China is likely to implement the consensus reached with the Chinese side during Blinken's previous visit to China, when the US side said that it welcomed the visit of China's climate envoy to the United States, and also agreed to hold multiple rounds of consultations in the future, etc., so the US Deputy Secretary of State's visit to China is not surprising.
U.S.-China talks
And the signal sent by this incident is very clear, that is, even if the relationship between China and the United States is still relatively tense, and the two sides still have differences and contradictions in some areas, the channel of communication has not been interrupted, at least on the bright side, the Biden administration has made a gesture of willingness to take the initiative to seek to maintain regular communication with China.
Finally, judging from the current regional security situation, the friction between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea issue has intensified, and the Philippines, at the instigation of the United States, has repeatedly taken irresponsible and provocative acts to rush into China's islands and reefs, and has also betrayed its diplomatic promise and denied the "gentlemen's agreement" reached with China on the issue of Ren'ai Jiao transportation and replenishment.
Although the United States still pays lip service to the Philippines and even uses the so-called "US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty" to support the Philippines, it is not willing to take risks for the Philippines in reality. To put it bluntly, the islands and reefs in the South China Sea have nothing to do with the vital interests of the United States, but they do concern China's core interests.
Summit of the United States, Japan and the Philippines
If the Philippines insists on taking risks, then we will have no choice but to take necessary measures in accordance with the law to defend our territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests. At that time, the pressure will be on the United States, and if it continues to watch the fire from the other side, it will only lose its credibility again, and if it rashly sends troops to intervene, it will not be in the interests of the United States.
So now the United States seems to be taking a tough stance and emboldening the Philippines through military exercises, but at the diplomatic level, it is seeking to engage with China, and during Blinken's previous visit to China, the United States and China agreed to hold a new round of consultations on maritime affairs, which is obviously aimed at dealing with the current situation in the South China Sea, so as to avoid miscalculations on both sides.
But the crux of the matter is that the two sides could have avoided miscalculation, and as long as the United States did not send warships and warplanes to China's doorstep and did not form factions in the Indo-Pacific region to create bloc confrontation, there is no possibility of miscalculation between China and the United States. As long as the United States can restrain its behavior, the South China Sea, the East China Sea, and the entire Indo-Pacific region may be calm.
American warships
All in all, China's attitude is consistent, we never refuse dialogue, but dialogue cannot be without a bottom line, and on key issues related to China's core interests, the US side must be clear about where China's red lines are, and do not always think about encircling China, otherwise it will only harm the US own interests in the end.