'We are not looking for conflict or a new Cold War' - Blinken on US-China policy
The United States does not seek to sever China from the global economy but wants Beijing to adhere to international rules, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a long-awaited speech on Thursday.
Washington will not block China from growing its economy or try to change Beijing's political system, Blinken said, but it will defend international law and institutions that maintain peace and security and make it possible for countries, including the United States and China, to coexist.
During a 45-minute speech at George Washington University Blinken said the U.S. is determined to avoid conflict or a new Cold War.
While Blinken credited the hard work of the Chinese people for their country's historic economic transformation in the last four decades, he said that under China's leader Xi Jinping the ruling Chinese Communist Party has become more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad.
In the speech, he laid out the contours of a strategy to invest in U.S. competitiveness and align with allies and partners to compete with China.
U.S.-China relations sank to their lowest level in decades under the Trump administration and have soured further under President Joe Biden, who has so far kept up his Republican predecessor Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs on Chinese goods, but also has pursued closer ties with allies in the Indo-Pacific and beyond to push back on Beijing's growing influence.
Seventeen months into his administration Biden, a Democrat, had faced criticism from Republicans and some foreign policy watchers for not announcing a formal strategy on China, the world's second-largest economy after the United States and Washington's main strategic rival.