The Guardian-Antony Blinken heads to China with warning for Beijing over support of Russia
April 24, 2024 6 min 1113 words
西方媒体的这篇报道主要内容是：美国国务卿安东尼布林肯将对中国进行为期三天的访问，计划与中国国务委员兼外交部长王毅会谈，并可能与习近平会面。布林肯此行旨在警告中国停止对俄罗斯的军事和双重用途产品销售，并计划对涉及此类销售的中国公司进行制裁。报道提到，中美关系最近有所改善，但中国对俄罗斯的支持加深了美国对中国抱团的担忧。报道还提到拜登政府考虑对中国银行实施制裁，但目前没有具体计划。报道最后谈到中美在朝核问题上的分歧，以及美国希望中国对朝鲜施加影响。 评论：这篇报道体现了西方媒体一贯的偏见，渲染“中国威胁论”，试图挑拨中俄关系，夸大美国制裁中国公司的效果，并对中美关系改善表现出莫名的焦虑。报道没有提到俄罗斯对美国及其盟友在东欧扩张的不满，以及中国在乌克兰冲突中一直发挥的建设性作用。报道也忽视了美国及其盟友在亚太地区构建针对中国的联盟，以及美国对朝鲜的敌视政策如何影响半岛局势。该报道罔顾事实，试图通过挑拨离间来影响中国外交政策，充分暴露了西方媒体的偏见和不公正。
Antony Blinken was due to land in China on Wednesday, amid a worsening rift between the world’s two most powerful countries that threatens to overshadow otherwise improving relations.
The US secretary of state is coming with a warning that the US and its European allies are no longer prepared to tolerate China’s sale of weapon components and dual-use products to Russia, which are helping Vladimir Putin rebuild and modernise his arms factories, enabling him to intensify his onslaught on Ukraine.
Relations between China and the US had been warmer recently, with Beijing significantly less bellicose in its military posturing in the Taiwan Strait since the meeting between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden in Woodside, California in 2023. In the wake of that summit, progress was made on people-to-people ties, more than doubling the number of flights between the two countries, for example.
At Woodside, Xi also agreed to take action to curb the flow of precursors and equipment used in the making of fentanyl in Latin America which is causing rising deaths among young Americans.
On his three-day visit Blinken will first stop in Shanghai on his way to Beijing, to speak to students and attend a basketball game, the sort of popular diplomacy which would have been unthinkable a year ago, when bilateral relations were fraught, mostly over Taiwan.
However, when Blinken reaches Beijing for a meeting with his counterpart Wang Yi on Friday, expected to last six hours, and most likely with Xi too, the mood could cool, with discussions about China’s sale of dual-use products to Russia on the agenda.
US sanctions against the Chinese companies involved are also looming over this week’s visit.
“We’re committed to taking the steps necessary to defend our national interests,” a senior administration official said, adding that the planned measures would be aimed at “firms that are taking steps in contravention to our interests and in ways that severely undermine security in both Ukraine and Europe.”
“This will be a key issue of discussion while we’re in Beijing,” the official said. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Biden administration was also considering sanctions against Chinese banks, but US officials say that there are no imminent plans to take such measures.
The US believes its hand is strengthened on this issue having discussed a common position with European allies, who are alarmed by the prospect of a rebuilt, modernised and battle-hardened Russian military in the hands of an increasingly aggressive leader in the Kremlin. The G7 foreign ministers issued a strongly worded statement earlier this week saying: “China should ensure that this support stops.”
“My expectation is that friends in Europe will have opportunities to express their concerns both in public and private to Chinese officials as well,” the senior administration official said. “So our objective will be to clearly make the case what the implications are of this support, and why that may not be in China’s interest going forward.”
US officials believe such joint pressure has helped convince Beijing to back down from their plans to supply arms directly to Russia earlier in the Ukraine war. However, they acknowledge that it will be hard to convince Xi to stop selling dual use industrial goods to China’s most important strategic partner.
Before Blinken’s arrival, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, restated China’s position.
“Let me stress again that China’s right to conduct normal trade and economic exchanges with Russia and other countries in the world on the basis of equality and mutual benefit should not be interfered with or disrupted,” Wang said according to Beijing Youth Daily. “China’s legitimate and lawful rights and interests should not be infringed on.”
The Blinken team is aware that China’s response to pressure over Russia could be to slow down progress in other areas of the bilateral relationship.
Beijing has taken some steps to curb the trade in fentanyl precursors and equipment in the wake of the Woodside summit, issuing a warning to pharmaceutical firms that it would enforce the law on those chemicals and taking police action against some suppliers. Blinken will be pressing for more, in the form of disruption of the financing networks around the trade, and more consistent law enforcement action.
It is unclear whether Beijing will limit cooperation on such a vital issue for Washington – fentanyl is the primary cause of death among Americans aged 18 to 49 – in response to threatened measures over Russia.
Beijing’s adamant support for Moscow is deepened by its belief that the US is seeking to encircle China by constructing an interlocking network of alliances around it.
Earlier this month, the US, Japan, and the Philippines, held a trilateral summit at the White House, reaffirming the security alliance between the three countries in the face of “dangerous and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea”, less than a year after a similar summit at Camp David with Japan and South Korea. In recent years the US also formed the Aukus security pact with Australia and the UK.
On most such bilateral issues, US officials say, the Chinese are highly disciplined in discussions, to the point where officials turn the page on their notes at the same time as Wang. There is rarely any diplomatic give and take in the meeting, but rather a recital of positions. Explorations of mutual benefit are left to working groups. But Wang is more likely to go off-script on multilateral issues like the Middle East, where both countries share an interest in the free flow of shipping.
Blinken and Wang have spoken six times since the outbreak of the Gaza war on 7 October about the situation in the region, where both US and China urged restraint on their respective partners, Israel and Iran, when an all-out war threatened to ignite this month.
Washington would like Beijing to do the same with North Korea. In US eyes, China has walked away from efforts to try to influence Pyongyang, at a time when the regime there has ramped up its threatening rhetoric against South Korea and other neighbours and warned of accelerated missile launches since it began deepening its relationship with Russia.
While US officials expect that some of Blinken’s sessions with Chinese counterparts may be “scratchy” because of the multiple irritations in the relationship, they also believe that China is committed to maintaining stability in the coming years while the leadership addresses economic challenges.