U.S. approach not about holding China back, is about upholding the rules-based international order
Excerpt from "Secretary Antony J. Blinken And Republic of Korea Foreign Minister Park Jin At a Joint Press Availability" Full video: • U.S. relationships not designed to be zero... Additional context: President Biden Launches the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity: • President Biden Launches the Indo-Pacific ... U.S. Strategy towards People’s Republic of China and South China Sea / Secretary Blinken • U.S. Strategy towards People’s Republic of... Short clip: • Highlight: President Biden Launches Indo-P... Short clip: • Video Short clip: • Seven ASEAN countries became founding memb... Full Transcript: https://www.state.gov/secretary-anton... Transcript of this excerpt: ....the relationships that we have around the world are not designed to be zero-sum when it comes to China. For example, we’re not about decoupling the economic and investment relationship between other countries and China or, for that matter, our own. On the contrary, we see tremendous value in those relationships. But there are certain aspects of the – just to cite the example of the trade and economic relationship – that are very important and that we discussed today. One is that I think for many countries, the lack of reciprocity in the economic and trade relationship is both unacceptable and unsustainable. That is, China imposes conditions and does things to our companies and businesspeople engaged in trade and investment in China that we do not impose on them, and that simply can’t last. And I think you’re seeing countries around the world come together on that proposition. Similarly, even as we support trade investment and even as we do not seek to decouple our economies, there are certain very specific aspects of our economies that are of strategic importance or that have a security implication where we have to be very vigilant because there is no distinction between Chinese companies and the Chinese state. Indeed, under Chinese law, companies that engage in investment and business are required, at the request of the government, to share any information that they’ve acquired as a result of these economic relationships with Beijing. And that presents, in certain areas, something that we have to be very vigilant about because it could become a security or strategic issue. So that’s the nature of the conversation. But more broadly, let me just add this. For us – and I had an opportunity to speak to this about a week ago in discussing the Biden administration’s approach to China – our approach is not about holding China back or trying to keep it down. It’s about upholding what we commonly refer to as the rules-based international order, the rule of law system that has been put in place to try to govern relations among nations in a way that upholds peace and security, minimizes the potential for conflict, and allows everyone to engage in a race to the top, where we all flourish and all succeed. When that order is challenged by anyone, we’ll defend it. And in fact, we’ll do it together. But again, this is not designed to be zero-sum. It’s designed to be a race to the top in which everyone – we hope China included – is prepared to engage.
