US ‘more aligned’ with allies on China, Russia, Biden’s top diplomat says

Washington is in a stronger position to stop ‘China’s efforts to challenge the rules-based international order’, Blinken says
Call with Lithuanian leader assures support amid ‘coercive diplomatic and economic behaviour’

US-China relations

Jacob Fromerin Washington

Published: 7:04am, 22 Dec 2021

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As the Joe Biden presidency wraps up its first year, Washington’s top diplomat said on Tuesday that US efforts to strengthen its alliances around the world over the last 11 months had put the country in a stronger position to take on China going forward.

“We’re much more aligned with our allies and partners now than we were a year ago on nearly every issue,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters at the State Department, “including Russia’s aggression towards Ukraine and its neighbours, Iran’s nuclear programme, and China’s efforts to challenge the rules-based international order.”

Blinken made the comments as tensions continue to soar in the US-China relationship on a wide range of issues, from human rights in the far-west Xinjiang region to Hong Kong’s autonomy to the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

Yang Jiechi, director of the China’s Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, at the start of the high-level strategic dialogue with the United States in Anchorage, Alaska in March. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan attended the dialogue. Photo: Xinhua

In a separate announcement, he also pledged support for Lithuania in the Baltic nation’s ongoing row with Beijing.

From the earliest days of the administration, Biden and his foreign policy team have emphasised that they view allies as essential in any competition with Beijing.

Blinken said on Tuesday that after nearly a year of close engagement with allies around the world, the US was now set up to challenge China more effectively than it otherwise would be able to do.

“Much of our work this year has been about rebuilding the foundations of American foreign policy,” he said, adding that “the world doesn’t organise itself when we’re not engaged”.

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Blinken said that the Biden administration had “reinvigorated” its engagement with international organizations like the UN and Asean, and with other groups of allies like Nato, the European Union, the G7, as well as Japan and South Korea.

He also pointed to the creation of the new Aukus military alliance between the US, UK and Australia, and the growing importance in Washington of the group known as the Quad, comprising the US, Australia, India and Japan.

“We’re in a stronger geopolitical position to deal with countries like China and Russia as they seek to undermine the international system that we built and led – a system that has made the world freer, more prosperous, more secure, more connected, and has allowed our country and people to thrive,” Blinken said.

US President Joe Biden, top centre, hosts a meeting with Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, left, in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Friday, Sept. 24, 2021. Biden’s meeting with the leaders of Australia, India, and Japan, as members of the “Quad” unveiled a series of initiatives, from semiconductors to vaccines, that they hope can counteract Chinese influence across the Pacific. Photo: Bloomberg

But Blinken also acknowledged that the US government could have a hard time holding on to its position as a global leader, even with a worldwide network of tight-knit alliances, if it could not muster enough consensus in Washington on a domestic agenda.

After his remarks, he faced questions about whether Congress’s failure to pass one of Biden’s signature domestic policy bills, the Build Back Better plan, in the president’s first year would hurt US standing around the world – especially as the administration has tried to paint its competition with China as a broader struggle of democracy versus authoritarianism.

“I think the President’s commitment to reinvest in education, in research and development, in infrastructure resonates,” Blinken said. “In each of these areas, we used to lead the world. We’ve fallen way, way back. And the President wants to change that.”

China’s answer to Aukus? More rhetoric, more intimidation, more weapons

“Yes, it’s true that it does make a difference if we’re able to get things done, to demonstrate ... that democracy can actually deliver,” he added. “That’s not only important for people here at home, it is important for our standing around the world.”

State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a separate announcement on Tuesday that Blinken had discussed with Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė reports that Chinese customs officials are blocking imports from her country.

“The Secretary underscored that such measures would raise serious concerns, including under international trade principles, and appear to constitute a form of economic coercion,” Price said.

Blinken “highlighted US support for Lithuania in the face of these actions and reaffirmed the US commitment to work with like-minded countries to push back against the [Chinese government’s] coercive diplomatic and economic behaviour”, he added.