On July 23, the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China announced Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit. According to the press release, from July 25 to 27, Foreign Minister Wang Yi will pay an official visit to Laos and attend four important meetings, namely the China-ASEAN (10+1) Foreign Ministers' Meeting, the ASEAN-China-Japan-ROK (10+3) Foreign Ministers' Meeting, the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting, and the ASEAN Regional Forum Foreign Ministers' Meeting.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi
Attending four meetings in three days is still a tight schedule, but the most noteworthy detail is that the Chinese side did not mention anything in the press release whether the Chinese and US foreign ministers will meet or not.
You know, just five days ago, when United States Secretary of State Blinken attended the Aspen Security Forum, he also took the initiative to say that he would meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Laos.
Even the day before China's announcement, the United States State Department still said that "Blinken is expected to contact Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during this trip", but until now, the Chinese side has not released relevant information.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi's itinerary did not contain a single remark about whether he would meet with Blinken, which can actually reflect China's attitude, and the request for dialogue may be just wishful thinking on the part of the United States.
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken
Of course, this is not to say that China refuses to engage in dialogue with the US, but that the US side lacks sincerity for dialogue. During Blinken's last visit to China, the Chinese side gave him high-level treatment, hoping that Blinken could bring the consensus reached in Beijing back to Washington and put it into practice.
However, it is regrettable that the US side has failed to respond to China's expectations at the practical level, whether it is the previous visit of United States Treasury Secretary Yellen to China or the subsequent visit to China by Blinken, the commitments made are only in words, which is not helpful for improving China-US relations.
Moreover, on key issues concerning China's core interests, the US has repeatedly tried to ignore China's warnings and promote arms sales to Taiwan, which is a serious provocation to China's sovereignty and must not be tolerated.
Therefore, the question at hand is not whether the two sides will have dialogue or not, but whether the US side can implement its commitments to the talks. To put it bluntly, you can't talk for the sake of dialogue alone, you can't achieve substantive results.
U.S.-China talks
Moreover, the United States of this ASEAN summit is obviously not a good one, as can be seen from the fact that the United States has repeatedly stood up for the Philippines on the Ren'ai Jiao issue in the past, and even brought out the so-called "US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty" to encourage the Philippines to run into porcelain and provoke China in the South China Sea.
Taking the opportunity of his visit to Southeast Asia this time, Blinken will inevitably hype up the South China Sea topic again, try to provoke confrontation between regional blocs, and undermine the positive atmosphere of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, which is to be expected.
However, with the entry into force of China's new coast guard regulations and the new arrangements reached between China and the Philippines on the issue of Ren'ai Jiao transportation and replenishment, the Philippines is destined to be unable to turn the waves in the South China Sea, so the real intention of United States may not only be the Philippines, but to plant a wedge within ASEAN.
In the past, United States neglected Southeast Asia for a long time, but since the Biden administration took office, it has paid special attention to the layout Viet Nam of the Indo-Pacific, and has spent a lot of effort to win over ASEAN countries.
Biden visits Viet Nam
But this does not mean that United States' strategy of wooing Viet Nam or ASEAN countries has succeeded, and the leaders of ASEAN countries such as Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia have publicly stated that they do not want to take sides between China and the United States.
As long as ASEAN refuses to take sides between China and the United States, then the United States' strategy of forming an "encirclement of China" around China will always lack a gap. Therefore, no matter what the purpose of Blinken's trip is, he will not gain anything by trying to sow discord between ASEAN and China.
As for whether Blinken can meet Foreign Minister Wang Yi as he wishes, it depends on whether the US side can show sincerity, and the initiative is always in our hands.