Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken is meeting with officials in China this week as disputes over wars, trade, technology and security test the two countries’ efforts to stabilize the relationship.
The United States is heading into an election year in which President Biden will be under intense pressure to confront China’s authoritarian government and provide new protections for American companies and workers against low-priced Chinese imports.
China is seeking foreign investment to help its sluggish economy. At the same time, its leader, Xi Jinping, has strengthened national security and expanded China’s military footprint around Taiwan and the South China Sea in a way that has alarmed its neighbors.
Mr Biden and Mr Xi have been holding talks to prevent their countries’ disputes from spiraling into conflict after relations sank to their lowest point in decades last year. But a series of challenges can make stabilizing the relationship difficult.
Confrontations over Chinese territory claims
The United States has pushed back against China’s increasingly assertive claims over parts of the South China Sea and the self-governing island of Taiwan by building security alliances in Asia.
That effort led to this There is growing concern in Beijing that the United States is leading a campaign to encircle China and contain its rise.
At meetings earlier this month, Mr. Biden met with the leaders of Japan and the Philippines. They discussed territorial conflicts in the South China Sea, including China’s “repeated harassment of lawful Philippine operations,” the US government said.
Encounters between Chinese and US military ships and aircraft in the Taiwan Strait and the South China and East China Seas have continued, raising concerns that an accident could trigger a confrontation between the two powers. That is why US officials have insisted on maintaining close military communications. High-level contacts between the two militaries were restored earlier this year after China froze communications in response to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August 2022.
China says the United States and its allies are fueling confrontation and should not interfere in the region’s affairs. There has already been a lot of fuss about the United States and the Philippines hosting annual joint military exercises this week. The US military also deployed for the first time, as part of an exercise, a medium-range missile system in the Philippines that could reach targets in China.
To counter Washington’s efforts, China has sought to strengthen ties with non-aligned countries in the region. The country’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, visited Indonesia, Cambodia and Papua New Guinea last week, around the same time that Mr. Blinken met foreign ministers from the Group of Seven Nations, a grouping that views Beijing as a rival for global considers influence.
Curbing the flow of fentanyl
U.S. officials say China has played a troubling role in supplying the chemicals and precursors used to make the powerful drug fentanyl.
At a meeting in San Francisco in November, President Biden and Mr Xi decided to work together to identify and reduce these flows. U.S. officials say China has made some progress on that front, but they are likely to push for further action.
In a report released last week, a US Congressional committee focused on China alleged that China had actively promoted the supply of fentanyl precursors to the United States, including by subsidizing exporters. A State Department official said Chinese authorities had begun action against Chinese suppliers of synthetic drugs and chemical precursors, but the US wanted to see progress.
China has long denied playing a major role in the fentanyl crisis in the United States and has deflected blame, saying it fell victim to Western powers during the Opium War.
Trade and Technology Restrictions
The United States and China still have one of the most extensive trading relationships in the world, but it has become even more contentious in recent months.
U.S. officials have urged China to cut exports of cheap electric vehicles and other green energy goods, saying they threaten American jobs. They are considering whether to raise tariffs on Chinese-made cars and solar panels to block more Chinese imports from the United States.
Last week, the Biden administration announced it would triple some tariffs on steel and aluminum products from China and launch an investigation into unfair practices by China’s shipbuilding, maritime and logistics industries.
The Biden administration also continues to impose more restrictions on sales of advanced chips and the machines used to make them to China, amid concerns that AI could help China’s military.
And on Tuesday, the U.S. Senate approved a bill that could force TikTok’s Chinese owner to sell the app or face banning it in the United States. The ban will likely be challenged in court.
Beijing has opposed the restrictions, which Mr Xi says are an attempt to deny China’s “legitimate right to development”. In response, he has called on China to promote “new productive forces” – a government mantra aimed at strengthening the country’s economy through technology and innovation, in the hope of becoming more self-reliant.
Cybersecurity and election interference
U.S. officials have expressed concern that China could attempt to influence the outcome of the upcoming U.S. presidential election, including by orchestrating social media campaigns to influence U.S. public opinion.
The National Security Agency said last week that there were also increasing signs that China was trying to gain access to critical US infrastructure to threaten those systems in the event of a conflict. Last year, Microsoft said it had discovered malicious code distributed by Chinese government hackers embedded in telecommunications systems in Guam and elsewhere in the United States.
While Beijing denies involvement in cyber attacks and election interference, recently leaked documents reveal that China has developed a sophisticated network of state-sponsored hackers targeting databases around the world.
Russian war against Ukraine
U.S. officials have made clear that they see Chinese sales to Russia of chips, machine tools, drones and other materials used in the war in Ukraine as one of the biggest obstacles in the relationship between Beijing and Washington.
And they believe that if China were to withdraw that support, it could determine the outcome of the war.
China has tried to walk a careful line by not giving Russia “lethal support” such as weapons, while still supporting Moscow. In early April, Chinese leader Xi Jinping met with the Russian Foreign Minister and reaffirmed China’s partnership with Russia.
Even as tensions between China and the United States have eased, Mr. Xi and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin have remained closely aligned. The two leaders have sought to weaken Washington’s global dominance, blaming “American hegemony” for curtailing their national ambitions.
Exercising influence over Iran
US officials, including Mr Blinken, hoping to prevent a wider war in the Middle East, have asked China to use its leverage over Iran to convince it not to escalate the confrontation with Israel.
As like-minded critics of the West, China and Iran have had close diplomatic ties for more than fifty years. That relationship has grown economically as China has pledged to invest billions in Iran in exchange for oil and fuel.
Beijing had described Iran’s missile and drone strikes targeting Israel earlier this month as an “act of self-defense” after it was widely believed to be an Israeli attack that killed seven Iranian officials.
Since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza, China has sought solidarity with the Muslim world by blaming the United States for decades of instability in the Middle East. Beijing also did not condemn Hamas for its terror attacks on Israel on October 7.