U.S. Secretary of State Blinken Meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded his two-day visit to Beijing with an unscheduled “courtesy meeting” with Chinese President Xi Jinping on June 19. On June 18, Blinken’s seven-hour meeting with Qin Gang had covered the gamut of U.S.-China relations, and all the problems connected with them. The discussion was characterized by both sides as “candid, in-depth and constructive.” The next day he had met with State Councilor Wang Yi, who told him that the U.S. should drop the “China hype” and lift trade sanctions.

In the discussions, Blinken reaffirmed commitments made by President Biden to President Xi on the sidelines of the G20 summit, Nov. 14, 2022, that the U.S. is committed to the “one-China policy,” does not seek a new “Cold War,” does not support Taiwan independence, and that its “alliances” are not aimed against China. Since that summit, actions of the Biden Administration have clearly sent the opposite message, but Blinken’s high-level reaffirmation was enough to persuade the Chinese leadership to agree to continued high-level exchanges.

President Xi met with Blinken for half an hour. Declaring that the common interests of the two countries should be valued, and that their respective successes are an opportunity for the other, rather than a threat, Xi said the two countries should act with a sense of responsibility for history, for the people, and the world, contribute to global peace and development, and help make the world more stable, certain, and constructive. “[N]either side should try to shape the other side by its own will, still less deprive the other side of its legitimate right to development,” he said.

Both parties indicated that this meeting—during which they agreed to encourage educational and people-to-people exchanges—would lead to further high-level exchanges between officials from their two countries in the near future.

What was clear is that Beijing is unlikely to agree to resuming military-to-military dialogue with the U.S. soon. The South China Morning Post noted June 20 that Blinken told reporters on June 19 that Chinese leaders have not agreed to the repeated requests by the American side for a dialogue to reduce the risk of military misunderstandings or miscalculations. Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor at Beijing’s Renmin University, said that Blinken’s remarks indicated that Washington wanted to “secure the absolute prevention and avoidance of military conflict” but still continues to challenge China’s “core interests.” China “fears that it would amount to letting the U.S. keep boosting its support for Taiwan,” said Shi, referring to Washington’s increased arms sales and enhanced economic and diplomatic ties with the island.

Blinken Flew to London After Beijing

Following his two-day visit to China, Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew on to London on June 21, where he immediately met with his British counterpart, James Cleverly. There was little of substance in their public comments, other than the reiteration that the U.S. and UK share the same policies on almost all issues.

During his joint press conference with Cleverly, Blinken responded to a June 20 Wall Street Journal article claiming that Beijing and Havana are close to an agreement on establishing a joint military training facility in Cuba. He told reporters that this “is something we’re going to be monitoring very, very closely, and we’ve been very clear about that.”

China’s Problems Explained by Foreign Policy: Friendship with Zepp-LaRouche

In a truly disgusting article in the June 20 issue of the war party’s Foreign Policy journal (owned by the Washington Post), titled “Why China’s Economy Hasn’t Bounced Back,” Deputy Editor James Palmer retails common lies about China to portray the Chinese economy as being in free fall, ultimately blaming the policies of President Xi Jinping—and China’s friendship with Helga Zepp-LaRouche!

As Zepp-LaRouche noted on June 21, the timing of the publication of this nonsense is no coincidence. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken had just been in Beijing, Chinese Premier Li Qiang was in Germany, and in both cases the Anglo-American “de-risking” campaign to subvert the Chinese economy was front and center on the agenda. Global Times on June 19 had posted an interview with Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche, titled: “ ‘De-risking’ with China Is Manipulative, Illustrating West’s Geopolitical Move To Contain China: Schiller Institute Founder.”

Palmer first blames China’s economic slowdown on Xi’s policies, labeling him the “Chairman of everything” in China. His crackdown on the massive “private education business” and on video games has driven hundreds of companies out of business, complains Palmer. (Almost as bad as Afghanistan shutting down the opium business, perhaps?) He continues: “China’s grasp of Western politics may not be that strong, as shown by the Global Times trotting out Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the widow of conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche and head of the fringe LaRouche movement today, as an expert on Germany.”

German-Chinese Economic Cooperation Continues Despite EU Commission

No major economic agreements were signed during the two-day visit to Germany of Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang, only several on cooperation in climate protection. Nonetheless, the the COSCO-Hamburg Sea Port deal for Chinese acquisition of a 24.99% share, was signed June 19 on the eve of Li’s arrival in Berlin. Larger deals had been signed when Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Beijing in early November 2022.

Li Qiang used his statement at the press conference with Chancellor Olaf Scholz on June 20 to say: “China has a huge market, a complete industrial system and abundant human resources,” adding that the economy, which had suffered from the pandemic, is now doing well again. “China and Germany are influential, big countries, so we should cooperate all the more.”

In Munich, Bavaria, Li toured the headquarters of the Siemens and BMW corporations. The Chinese themselves had requested this focus on high-tech cooperation with the two companies. At the official reception there, Bavarian Minister President Markus Söder spoke out against decoupling the economies. That, he said, would be harmful to sectors such as the automotive and chemical industries. It is a matter of safeguarding jobs, he said.

German businesses are resisting the EU Commission’s scheme to make doing business in China more difficult by imposing investment controls and other requirements. The two major business associations are up in arms against European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s “de-risking” plans, which come newly packaged as a strategy for “economic security.” The two associations have just released statements saying, as one of them, the organization of the machinery and equipment manufacturing industry (VDMA), put it, “Investments abroad do not endanger public security and order in Europe. Rather, they are necessary to improve the local or global market position of the investor. And they are an important means for technology companies to survive in international competition.... [W]eakening the competitiveness of the European capital goods industry by controlling investments abroad, which creates additional bureaucracy and legal uncertainty, must be avoided at all costs.”

Zepp-LaRouche: Li Qiang’s Visit to Germany Was Positive

Speaking June 22 on CGTN’s “Dialogue” program, hosted by Xu Qinduo, Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche was asked how she evaluated Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s recent tour of Germany. Given the tense environment in which it took place, she said, she was relieved and saw the Premier’s visit quite positively. “I think the message of Prime Minister Li Qiang got across, that business should be put in the driver’s seat, because they understand much better what the real interest of Germany is, than other institutions, including the government, the intelligence services, the media and so forth.”

Zepp-LaRouche added that in the absence of major clashes or provocations, “I think it was a calm, harmonious development, stressing the importance of the relations between these two very important economies of the world.” Pointing out that Germany now is faced with a major crisis of deindustrialization, “the only way out for Germany is to strengthen the relationship with China. And I think Prime Minister Li’s point, that the biggest risk is a lack of development, is so true for Germany! Because Germany used to be a powerhouse of economic science and technology and so forth.… So I think … the strengthening of the relationship with China is the absolutely most important factor.”

Anti-China Hawks Seek To Torpedo U.S.-China Science-Tech Agreement

The renewal of the U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement (STA), signed shortly after the U.S. established relations with the People’s Republic of China in 1979, is coming up later this year, and the troglodytes in the U.S. Congress, led by former Marine Intelligence Officer, Representative Mike Gallagher, are calling on the Biden Administration to scrap it. The State Department and National Security Council declined to comment on the issue, due to “internal deliberations on negotiations.”

The agreement, the oldest existing cooperation agreement between the U.S. and the PRC, has delivered untold benefits in many different areas, facilitating collaboration in fields such as atmospheric and agricultural science, as well as fundamental research in physics and chemistry. The Chinese Embassy last year had proposed renewing the agreement before it runs out. A decision on the matter will indicate how determined the U.S. is in its desire to re-establish somewhat more amicable relations with China.