US talks of teaming up with China, but analysts remain pessimistic about ties

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the countries should work together on climate and health, but observers say words not matched by deeds
Next month’s G20 summit and COP27 climate conference will be test of cooperation between Washington and Beijing, according to politics expert

US-China relations

Jack Lau

Published: 8:42pm, 18 Oct, 2022

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Chinese diplomacy experts remain pessimistic about the future of US-China ties, despite US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s comments on Monday that Washington cannot lose sight of the cooperative aspects of the relationship.

Both countries could work together to resolve the climate crisis and global health problems, Blinken said at an event at the Hoover Institution, an American public policy think tank.

“And we can’t lose sight of those, because some of the really big problems that we have to find ways to solve are a lot harder to solve if the United States and China are not actually engaged in trying to solve them: climate, global health, et cetera,” he said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the United States should not “lose sight of the cooperative aspect” of bilateral ties with China. Photo: AP

US-China ties have remained at a low ebb for years as the governments clashed on a litany of issues from technology to human rights, trade, military developments and regional security.

Both countries have stood by their political systems and placed them at the heart of their national security policies. US President Joe Biden has repeatedly warned that autocrats are undermining democracy, while his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping sees the security of the Communist Party’s absolute leadership as paramount to China’s survival.

Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University of China, said bringing up the importance of cooperation presented Washington’s China policy as more balanced, but the words were not matched by deeds.

Not only were there fewer areas of cooperation than competition, but the areas of cooperation were less important to the two governments, he said.

Blinken: US must not ‘lose sight of cooperative aspect’ of China relationship

“Competition has been very real and specific – very, very concrete. But areas of cooperation have been described with abstract and ambiguous language. Actual acts of working together, at least until now, have been few and far between.”

The Biden administration published its national security strategy last week. It said the US should focus on out-competing China, which had the intent and means to reshape the international order and “create more permissive conditions for its own authoritarian model”.

The strategy identifies areas for international cooperation, including the climate crisis, energy and food security, global health and arms control. However it also noted that Beijing expected concessions on unrelated issues “as a prerequisite to cooperation on shared challenges”, which Washington opposed

Competition has been very real and specific – very, very concrete. But areas of cooperation have been described with abstract and ambiguous language. Actual acts of working together, at least until now, have been few and far between

Shi Yinhong, international relations professor

The main barrier to cooperation had been Washington’s use of “competition” as a defining factor for US-China ties, said Lu Xiang, an expert on US-China relations at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a state think tank, pointing to Biden’s national security strategy as an example of this framing.

“From China’s point of view, it’s a good thing for both countries to cooperate. But with Washington using competition as a defining factor of the relationship, under this premise, it means little now that Blinken talks about areas of cooperation.”

Businesses say new US ban on Xinjiang products leaves them confused

Lu said competition and cooperation could not be discussed in isolation, pointing to the US import ban on solar panels from Xinjiang because of concerns over forced labour. The region in far western China is a hub for producers of silicon and polysilicon, which are essential materials for making solar panels.

He said the ban could worsen the global response to climate change by limiting the use of renewable energy technology from China – the world’s largest solar panel producer.

02:47

UN human rights body says China may have committed crimes against humanity in Xinjiang

The UN human rights office released a report in August saying that some labour and employment schemes in Xinjiang appeared to have involved coercion. Beijing said it firmly opposed the report’s findings.

China and the US will face two “tests” before the end of the year, namely, the G20 summit in Indonesia, scheduled for November, and the COP27 climate conference to be held the same month in Egypt, according to Pang Zhongying, chair professor of international political economy at Sichuan University.

The events will serve as a test to see whether the countries can agree to take action on the climate and other global issues. Xi and Biden are expected to attend the G20 summit, but their attendance at COP27 has not yet been confirmed.

Xi and Putin tipped to stage joint show of defiance against West at G20

Pang said it was unlikely that the G20 summit would produce a joint communique at the end of the meetings because of the differences between the two countries.

“We have to wait and see,” Pang said. “[Xi] still mentioned the need to create a ‘shared future for humanity’ and confront global challenges in his 20th party congress report.”

According to Pang, there are still many potential areas for cooperation, such as global inflation, food security and nuclear non-proliferation. But if both countries did not work together on these areas with a minimum level of cooperation, it might be difficult for ties to return to normal, he said.