Blinken’s nothingburger — Thursday, May 26, 2022
A note for Access newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn.
My thoughts today:
This morning there was a speech in Washington D.C. by Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken that was advertised as “outlining the Administration’s policy toward the People’s Republic of China.”
However, Blinken did not really say anything specific about the Biden administration’s China policy. Mostly, he regurgitated a bunch of clichés. Some of his comments — such as “We have the best workers in the world” — seemed to be scripted to appeal to American voters in swing states. Other remarks seemed designed to reassure the world that America was still a competitive nation.
Blinken namechecked various causes that Washington notionally supports, such as the right of Uyghurs to not be locked up in concentration camps, and Taiwan’s right to exist without being bombed. But he did not lay out anything concrete that the U.S. might do in support of these causes.
That’s my read; here are the headlines from the mainstream media:
- Blinken says U.S. is ready to strengthen diplomacy with China in ‘charged moment for the world’ / CNN
- Blinken lays out U.S. strategy to counter China as rivalry grows / Al Jazeera
- U.S. aims to constrain China by shaping environment around it, Blinken says / New York Times
- Blinken: U.S. to leverage Russia-Ukraine bloc against China / Associated Press
- Blinken says U.S to rely on alliances, trade and investment to counter China / Wall Street Journal
- After Biden’s Taiwan remark, Blinken insists U.S. ‘remains committed’ to One China policy / Fox News
China’s diplomats are not impressed. Here is Zhā Lìyǒu 查立友, China’s Consul General in Kolkata, India on Twitter, for example, comparing a Chinese project in Indonesia with the new Biden initiative, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), which aims to create new rules on environmental and labor practices, and more across Asia:
Compare this high-quality [Chinese] project, an exemplary model for community development, with IPEF, an empty check that the U.S. asks its allies to crowd-fund but will be invalidated in two years, or in four years at most!
Our word of the day is South Pacific (南太平洋 nán tàipíngyáng).
