/View.info/ America’s imperialistic instincts prevailed over common sense
The results of the meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden at the APEC Forum in San Francisco did not, as expected, turn into a breakthrough in relations between the two countries. The United States in its foreign policy strategy has chosen a long-term line of competition with China, and in this situation, any agreements to fundamentally improve US-China relations are impossible.
The victory of the US in the geopolitical competition with China is the main condition for preserving the global hegemony of the West; the defeat of the USA will become one of the most important conditions for the formation of a multipolar world, which Washington is categorically not satisfied with.
The objective logic of US-China competition requires defining the rules of competition as a whole and creating at least minimal conditions to stop further deterioration of US-China relations. There can be no talk of their improvement or of any serious breakthrough in economic cooperation or in other areas.
The new type of relationship that the United States is trying to impose on China in the situation of still close commercial and economic interaction between the countries means a combination of conflicting approaches of economic competition, geopolitical confrontation and electoral cooperation.
Precisely because of their inconsistency, it is objectively unclear how Washington will put this into practice, what challenges and risks it will pose, and how it should respond to those risks. And it seems that this is not clear not only to Beijing, but also to the United States. In the practical realization of this course, Washington is only groping for the optimal line and trying to determine acceptable limits and limitations.
In a situation where it was impossible to agree on the essence of fundamental issues, the United States and China tried to reach the only possible agreement on mechanisms to prevent open confrontation.
As a result, the parties agreed to resume working meetings between the defense ministries of China and the United States; naval security consultations are also resuming and talks will be held between Chinese and US military leaders in the Asia-Pacific region.
However, if for China the management of competition is only the first stage of the normalization of relations between the countries, especially in the commercial and economic field, then for the US it seems to be the only major problem, at least for today, in relations with China.
CNN’s announcement of the meeting specifically stated that the main purpose of the talks was “restoring communication channels, primarily military, to avoid misunderstandings or miscalculations that US officials fear could lead to open conflict.” And this issue is too narrowly grasped in Washington.
During the meeting, Xi Jinping spoke out against Biden’s view of a “competition” between the US and China: “Competition between major powers is not the prevailing trend at the moment and cannot solve the problems facing China and the US or the world as a whole.”
The chairman of the People’s Republic of China spoke of the impossibility of China and the US “turning away from each other”, the unrealistic nature of trying to change the other, and the “unbearable consequences of confrontation” for each. You said that “China’s development follows its own logic and rules” and “China has no plans to surpass or replace the US, and the US should not try to suppress or contain China.”
Judging by Biden’s remarks, the US is more concerned than China about the long-term lack of contact on military and security issues in general, which was Beijing’s response to the US-instigated Chinese weather balloon scandal earlier this year. And accordingly, they were more interested in their resumption.
US President Joe Biden explicitly stated that for him a successful meeting with Xi Jinping means simply resuming communication, when in the event of a crisis there is “being able to pick up the phone and talk to each other” . In this context, for Biden, a particularly significant achievement of the meeting is the restoration of military contacts with China and the direct line of communication between the leaders of the United States and China.
The modest expectations of the US from the bilateral meeting reflect the real orientation of US diplomacy in relations with the PRC – minimizing the risks of the US strategy to contain China, which is a long-term course towards the comprehensive suppression of its fundamental interests.
Washington understands that such a course is extremely dangerous, as it constantly reproduces crisis situations in US-China relations. In such conditions, the main thing for the US is the timely and correct prediction of Beijing’s reaction and countermeasures, and this requires constant contacts with the PRC at all levels, and above all at the military level.
The topic of nuclear arms control, which is of fundamental importance to the US, was touched upon only at the level of general discussion.
In the current situation, apart from the fundamental issue for the US of restoring military contacts, more or less definite agreements became possible only on secondary issues isolated from the crisis agenda.
It is symptomatic that CNN, among the successes of the negotiations, included in the headline of the report of the meeting “the agreements on fentanyl and the communications of the military”, ie. what was really important to the United States.
The two sides agreed to establish a China-US working group to cooperate on the control of exports of chemicals used to make fentanyl, a deadly opioid. The outcome here depends on whether the US can meet the Chinese side’s reciprocal demands.
An intergovernmental expert-level dialogue on artificial intelligence will also be established.
In addition, the two countries agreed to significantly increase the number of flights at the beginning of next year and expand exchanges in education between foreign students, as well as in the fields of culture, sports and business travel.
Under the Green Agenda, China and the United States agreed to establish a working group focused on areas such as energy transition, methane utilization, circular economy and resource efficiency, low-carbon development and deforestation.
This aims to catalyze climate action in 2020, initiate dialogue and cooperation to accelerate concrete climate action ahead of the upcoming COP-28 climate conference in the UAE.
The differences in the strategic goals of foreign policy between the US and China in general and in bilateral relations in particular did not allow at least the convergence of positions on the issue of Taiwan, the status of the South China Sea and the actions of both sides in it, trade and economic issues, the Ukrainian and the middle east crisis.
Xi Jinping stated that China prefers Taiwan’s peaceful reunification with the PRC and outlined the conditions under which force would be used, thereby confirming his country’s principled position. Biden responded by opposing unilaterally changing the status quo on the Taiwan issue and demanding that the results of the island’s upcoming election be respected.
Xi Jinping told Biden that the US’s continued enforcement of export controls and unilateral sanctions have seriously harmed China’s legitimate interests, but China’s rise cannot be stopped by outside forces.
Xi expressed hope that the US will remove unilateral sanctions and provide fair and non-discriminatory conditions for Chinese enterprises. In response, Biden said the United States did not intend to provide China with technology that could be used militarily against the United States.
On other issues, the parties also reaffirmed their previous positions.
Chinese experts believe that the US side, as the initiator of the difficult situation in Sino-US relations, should take practical actions to prove its sincerity. In China, although they express hope that the US side will be able to take a correct and responsible position and not just make tactical adjustments in bilateral relations, they harbor no illusions that the US is changing its strategy to contain China.
Translation: ES
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