Blinken in Beijing: China Reacts
“On the off chance that the US mends its ways, that is exactly what China hopes will happen.”
Antony Blinken’s China trip finally happened: between June 18 and 19, the US Secretary of State met with foreign minister Qin Gang, China’s highest-ranking diplomat Wang Yi, as well as Xi Jinping himself in Beijing. The US State Department’s readout of the meetings is here, and the Chinese readout for the Xi-Blinken meeting is available here.
Many have noted China’s seemingly cool response to the visit, especially Beijing’s rejection of a military crisis hotline. Chinese media’s enthusiasm, however, tells another side of the story. The trip made top headlines across major newspapers and popular social media channels, a testament to the significance of the bilateral relationship for not only China’s leadership, but also the Chinese public. Below are some excerpts translated from Chinese sources on the visit, including:
Whether Chinese analysts expect a thaw in the relationship;
Bloggers reading the no-red-carpet tea leaves;
Becoming America’s “worthy opponent”;
And Western media’s supposed “hell filter”…
Bold marks and images are from the editor.
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Viral Netizen Commentaries
These commentaries from current-affairs bloggers, posted in WeChat’s Public Account subscription feed, were all read more than 100,000 times. They are all prominent nationalist voices with varying degrees of state affiliation, but their tone seems less confrontational than usual. As this recent Economist newsletter notes, the Chinese public’s appetite for saber-rattling has dried up somewhat, alongside economic troubles and growing awareness of the true toll a Taiwan Strait conflict would take on Chinese society.
伍之管见 is a mysterious WeChat Public Account whose articles are frequently republished by state outlets. The following piece was reposted by Xinhua.
As the first member of the Biden administration to visit China, Blinken is entrusted with the task of reporting the results of the visit to Biden and conveying China’s position. It is hoped that he will highlight the following three points when back:
The first point: Finding the right way to maintain a relationship in mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation.
Mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation are China’s consistent principles in dealing with Sino-US relations, and are also the right way for China and the United States to maintain the relationship.
Mutual respect is a prerequisite.
China and the United States have different systems, and there are significant points of divergence.
It is inevitable that there will be disagreements and frictions, but these are not reasons for finger-pointing, exclusion, or even suppression, let alone an excuse for haughty interference with a “schoolmaster” mentality.
China opposes the arrogant attitude of so-called “starting from a place of strength,” advocating instead that China and the US respect each other’s core interests and major concerns, and respect each other's right to development. The development of China today — from standing up and getting rich to becoming strong — never relies on bullying the weak, but also will not tolerate being trampled upon. China, like all countries in the world including the United States, regards equality as a prerequisite for dialogue. [Jordan: lots of projection going on here…]
The second point: Do not say one thing and do another. Chinese people won’t tolerate such tricks.
For some time, the United States has been calling for “maintaining open channels of communication,” “stabilizing Sino-US relations,” and “managing Sino-US relations responsibly.” The response from China is clear: the United States should not say one thing and do another.
Still remember the “four no’s and one without” commitment made by President Biden? No seeking a “new Cold War,” no seeking to change China’s system, no strengthening alliance relations against China, no support for “Taiwan independence,” and no engaging in conflict and confrontation with China. [Ed.: These commitments came from the Chinese readout of the Xi-Biden phone call in March 2022; interestingly, they did not appear in the US version of the readout.]
While the American commitments were still echoing in our ears, the then–US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, ignoring China’s strong opposition and serious protest, made a surprise visit to China’s Taiwan region on August 2, 2022. This seriously violated the One-China Principle and the provisions of the three China-US Joint Communiques, seriously undermining the political foundation of Sino-US relations. It gave the world ample reason to believe that the US’s statement is strategic deception.
Does China support communication? Of course — but communication shouldn’t be for communication’s sake. China doesn’t need the United States to travel thousands of miles to act as a “schoolmaster” to China. Communication should be sincere and aimed at solving problems. It cannot be like at the Shangri-La Dialogue, where the United States was requesting dialogue with the Chinese defense minister on one hand, and frequently provoking China on issues such as the South China Sea on the other.
The third point: Pretty words can’t sanitize the US’s image.
Fundamentally, the reason the Sino-US relationship has sunk to such lows is due to the United States’ erroneous perception of China, which leads to incorrect policies toward China.
Americans can’t expect that simply saying they are “responsibly managing Sino-US relations” will pave over their own irresponsible actions that damage the relationship between the two countries. Nor should they expect that by loudly publicizing their views, they can present themselves as the “good guys” working to improve Sino-US relations. Pretty words cannot thaw Sino-US relations, nor can they deceive the international community.
What Chinese people care about more — and what the international community is more concerned with — is how the United States will implement the consensus reached during this visit, and what actions the United States will take to correct previous mistakes and genuinely improve Sino-US relations.
Many US officials have expressed their hope to visit China. Blinken has opened a door for more of his colleagues to visit China. However, we need to wait and see what the United States will do.
燕梳楼, a popular anonymous blogger who writes frequently on international relations, fixated on a series of apparent “snubs” Blinken encountered in China, from the lack of a red carpet at the airport to the absence of a state banquet from the itinerary. Their analysis goes like this (and note the not-so-subtle monarchic diction when referencing Xi…):
The cold shoulders Blinken encountered during his visit are not because China isn’t well-versed in hospitality, but rather a deliberate act. The aim is to let Blinken and the United States see the attitude, determination, bottom line, and confidence of the Chinese people. Expecting to manipulate China as in the past is no longer possible.
Blinken is an experienced politician; he could not possibly misinterpret the signals China is sending. He understands that whether he can fulfill the mission entrusted to him by Biden — whether it’s a successful return or a fruitless one — entirely depends on his attitude.
If he cannot correct his prejudices against China, not only will there be no red carpet, but it’s also possible that his subsequent itinerary cannot be completed. According to the US’s previous plan, Blinken’s visit to China was scheduled for four days, but China deliberately reduced it to two. [Ed.: There seems to be no evidence for this claim.]
If he doesn’t show some sincerity, he might not even get any good treatment during those two days. It is because of this psychological foundation that a seven-hour Sino-US diplomatic talk took place, and a consensus was reached in five areas.
And it was only after reaching a consensus in these five areas that he had a meeting with Wang Yi. And because the talk with Wang Yi went well, he was unexpectedly granted an audience with the highest leader in the afternoon.
So, what and how to talk entirely depends on Blinken. As Wang Yi said, “Mr. Secretary of State, your trip to Beijing comes at a critical juncture in Sino-US relations, where choices need to be made between dialogue or confrontation, cooperation or conflict.”
When I read this sentence, combined with the overall arrangement of this trip, I smiled. Oh, the damn wisdom of China, truly making one feel convinced in the heart and by word. If we had praised Blinken to the skies from the start, would his attitude be like this?
Now, not only has he learned to listen carefully to China’s opinions, but he doesn’t show any dissatisfaction, and his performance is so good. That’s why we gave him an opportunity to save face and granted him a royal audience!
In fact, this saving face is not for Blinken, but for Biden and the United States. After all, since Blinken came with Biden’s high hopes and greetings, we should give some respect.
This is the demeanor of a great country, and also the confidence of a great country. The aim is to show the world that China is quite satisfied with Blinken’s sincerity in his visit.
As I write this, I’m suddenly reminded of the slogan “Down with American imperialism and all its running dogs” on the roadside during Nixon’s visit to China in 1972.
Nixon was shaken, and the rest was history.
This teaches us a true lesson: if you want to gain respect from your adversary, you must first be a worthy opponent!
History is always full of astonishing coincidences, and the Sino-US relationship, at its nadir, urgently needs a turning point.
This vast Earth can totally accommodate the independent development and joint prosperity of both China and the US!
占豪 is the pen name of well-known influencer Hu Zhanhao 胡占豪, who also serves on the Hubei Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Known as a militant nationalist voice with local government backing, his take is an interesting attempt at guiding anti-American sentiments:
The meeting between the Chinese head of state and Blinken is a pleasant surprise!
Why is this a surprise? Because, given the previous diplomatic atmosphere between the two sides, China would not have promised such a high-level meeting to Blinken unless the US made significant political commitments. Eventually, after two rounds of meetings, China gave Blinken the opportunity to meet China’s highest leader. In my view, the core reason is that the first two rounds of communication between Blinken and Chinese leaders had a decent atmosphere. More importantly, the US must have made important political assurances; otherwise, Blinken would not have met China’s highest leader.
…
So, will the US truly turn away from evil and pursue a better path?
In my view, the answer is obviously no. If the US could mend its ways, why would the Sino-US relationship be in the stalemate it’s in now? The primary reasons for Blinken’s visit are to resolve three issues:
Firstly, to maintain good communication between China and the US, and to avoid unforeseeable consequences due to a misjudgment caused by US provocation. The US is very worried about this. They hope their allies will take the brunt of any clash with China and don’t want to become cannon fodder themselves. Therefore, to avoid a China-US conflict triggered by US provocation, Blinken came. He is here to avoid conflict within the context of US provocation, not to stop the provocation.
Secondly, the US has requests for China. They hope China will buy US Treasury bonds, that China will not support Russia, that China will not develop advanced technology. … In short, all the things the US is asking for are things that China can’t deliver.
Thirdly, they wish to cooperate with China on some issues, such as the Ukrainian crisis, future Israel-Palestine issues, as well as issues like climate change and North Korea’s nuclear program. Without China, these critical issues would not be solved satisfactorily — or rather, the US wouldn’t be able to achieve its goals without China. In this situation, the US hopes to “bamboozle” China into acting according to the US’s will.
In the future, especially next year, which is an election year in the US, American provocations against China will become only more intense, not weaker! Especially the Democrats, who are manipulative and subject to influence by members of Congress. They are even worse than the Trump administration. Therefore, don’t expect any good deeds from the Biden administration!
However, this step is necessary. If we don’t let the US complete its performance, how will the world see the US more clearly? How will countries around the world know whose side they should be on? If the US wants to perform, we must cooperate, but we must not act according to their script! We have our own script, and we need to play along with the US’s self-directed and self-performed drama of shooting itself in the foot!
Of course, on the off chance that the US mends its ways, that is exactly what China hopes will happen. China hopes that everyone can develop harmoniously; just as China’s highest leader says, this vast Earth can totally accommodate the independent development and joint prosperity of both China and the US.
Chinese Experts Weigh In
Phoenix Television, a Hong Kong–based state media outlet, collected a variety of Chinese experts’ quick reactions to the Blinken visit. Here are a few:
Professor Wang Xiaosong 王孝松 from the School of Economics, Renmin University of China:
[Biden and Blinken] have had a foundation and background of collaboration since the 1990s. During Biden’s competition with Obama, Blinken was actually an important member of Biden’s campaign team. After Obama was elected, Biden became Vice President, and Blinken became Deputy Secretary of State. But in reality, his ability to become Deputy Secretary of State probably owes much to Biden’s critical role. Now, it can be said that there’s a debt of gratitude. When Biden was elected President at an old age, he reused Blinken, his old colleague and long-time cooperative partner, to be his Secretary of State.
There are three goals: eliminate misunderstandings, iron out differences between the two sides, and continuously open up channels of interaction to make them smoother. This indeed reflects the current demands of the US side. Because in fact, both China and the US have seen that this kind of cold war-like tension is detrimental to both sides, and also to the world.
[The US] aims to reshape the strategic environment around China, which in fact is an attempt to put pressure on China regarding the Taiwan Strait issue, and to form an encirclement around China. Therefore, such an “invasionist” [侵略主义], bullying, and long-arm jurisdiction posture is glaringly obvious.
The state of sanctions and suppression has not fundamentally changed, and we see the Entity List expanding more and more. Moreover, in the field of culture, the US has also reduced the quotas for Chinese students this year, especially in science and engineering. Now, applying to American schools is extremely difficult. This means that whether in the realms of politics, economics, military, science and technology, or culture, the US actually does not have a genuine intention to cooperate, but is pushing to suppress and sanction China to the extreme.
Assistant Research Fellow Ma Wei 马伟 from the Institute of American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences:
Earlier this year, Biden inadvertently mentioned that the US may assist Taiwan in its defense, which seriously infringes upon the One China policy. I think Blinken is simply executing Biden’s foreign policy. This includes the fact that the US Congress is continuously pushing bills related to Taiwan relations, constantly making the relationship between the US and Taiwan substantive. The US National Defense Authorization Act already involves a large amount of funding to provide military aid to Taiwan, which has moved from being covert to overt. I believe this is not just a statement by Blinken himself; it actually reflects the real attitude of the Biden administration towards the Taiwan issue, which is even further and more reprehensible than during the Trump era.
A significant lesson for the US comes from the Cold War era. When the US and the USSR were vying for supremacy, and their nuclear weapons were aimed at each other’s key targets, establishing a communication mechanism between the two parties became very important. A crucial point is that Blinken’s wish to visit China is not because Sino-US relations have improved, but because the competition between China and the US has reached a point where the US feels it could escalate into confrontation, and could spiral out of control. He hopes to cool down this competition. He wishes to set the rules for the competition more from his side, which is an important reason why the US is eager to visit China, and it is also a reason why it does not give up on suppressing and sanctioning China.
Chu Yin 褚殷, researcher at the American Studies Center of Zhejiang International Studies University:
The Secretary of State of the United States is the third-highest-ranking official in the US government. Blinken is not a technical bureaucrat. Historically, the Secretary of State often is the President’s most powerful competitor. Many famous American presidents started out as Secretaries of State. The real issue with Blinken is that he has too many political aspirations beyond his own duties. [Ed Jordan: this is really poor analysis and reflects the weak understanding China’s “America experts” have about American politics.]
Next up: How a Reuters photo of Blinken at the airport spawned a viral conspiracy about Western media undermining China…