US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to students in Shanghai City (China) on April 25 – Photo: REUTERS
On April 25, during a series of activities for his three-day trip to China, Mr. Blinken met with business leaders in Shanghai city.
Call on China to treat American businesses fairly
This trip continues efforts to resume high-level contacts between the US and China, when the bilateral relationship was said to have fallen to its “historic low” last year.
According to US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, at the meeting with Shanghai Secretary Tran Cat Ninh, Mr. Blinken raised US concerns about China’s trade policy and the status of its “non-market economy”. Quoc.
In addition, the US Secretary of State also emphasized that Washington wants to aim for a healthy economic competition with China, as well as hope to have a fair playing field for US workers and companies operating in China. .
The Chinese side said that criticism of its excess production capacity is baseless, and emphasized that the country’s industries from electric vehicles to solar cells are innovative and competitive.
At the meeting, Mr. Tran reiterated that the most recent phone call between the two sides had helped the stable and healthy development of the two countries’ relations. “Whether we choose cooperation or confrontation will affect two peoples, two countries, and the future of humanity.”
US – China resolve differences over Ukraine and Taiwan
While Mr. Blinken’s mission is as a “messenger” to mend the close and important economic relationship between the US and China, he will certainly fall into a dilemma when he cannot help but mention different aspects. deeply between the two sides.
A lot of news information accidentally or intentionally appeared right when Mr. Blinken arrived in China. From the United States, President Joe Biden signed a bill that includes $8 billion to compete with China’s military power, as well as billions of dollars for Taiwan’s air defense, and $61 billion in aid to Ukraine.
China views Taiwan as a province and always opposes this territory’s high-level contacts with countries like the United States. In the context of increasing Taiwan Strait tensions, Beijing has even more reason to be “hot” with the US helping Taiwan improve its defense capabilities.
Another thing that makes China uncomfortable is that Mr. Biden also signed a bill to ban TikTok in the US, if this social networking platform’s parent company ByteDance does not withdraw capital within 9 months to a year. China has long opposed the US tightening regulations on Chinese companies, saying it is an act of unfair technological competition.
Finally, Mr. Blinken will seek to urge China to prevent its companies from supporting Russia’s defense industry.
Russia-US relations were extremely tense after Russia launched a “special military campaign” in Ukraine in February 2022. The US and the West have put economic pressure on Russia as a punishment, but this has further contributed to promoting Russia-China relations, to a level Moscow and Beijing describe as “unlimited”.
In a sensitive development on April 24, newspaper Politico quoted the US ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) accusing China of supporting Russia in the conflict with Ukraine, by providing drone technology supplies and gunpowder raw materials. This person affirmed that China has “chosen sides” and can no longer claim to be neutral.
