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US-China relations
ChinaDiplomacy

Competition with US inevitable if China is to protect core interests, expert says after visit

  • More face-to-face exchanges expected next year following Xi-Biden meeting in Bali
  • Both sides preparing for visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in early 2023

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Chinese and US flags flutter near the Bund in Shanghai before trade talks in July 2019. Photo: Reuters
Kinling Loin Washington
While more China-US exchanges are expected next year, China needs to be ready to compete with the US in the long run, according to a top Chinese expert who was part of a recent semi-official diplomatic visit to the United States.
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Wu Xinbo, who heads Fudan University’s Centre for American Studies, drew that conclusion after the nine-day visit by a Chinese delegation that also included former Chinese ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai, former commerce minister Chen Deming, and the deputy dean of the People’s Liberation Army’s National Defence University, Major General Tang Yongsheng.

“We have to be prepared to compete with the US, this is not avoidable,” he said. “It’s not because we want to compete with the US to be the first in the world, it’s because the US has shown a significant change in policy towards China, and we have to compete if we want to protect our core interests.

03:33

Xi, Biden discuss Taiwan and Xinjiang in first in-person meeting

Xi, Biden discuss Taiwan and Xinjiang in first in-person meeting

“[US President Joe] Biden’s policies towards China are very clear, they will not change in their course of cutting off China from US technology.”

The Chinese delegation went to the US under the auspices of the Chinese People’s Institute for Foreign Affairs, Beijing’s backchannel diplomacy body, and its visit coincided with the first in-person meeting between President Xi Jinping and Biden as heads of state in Bali, Indonesia, on November 14.

Following that meeting, the US and China both confirmed that preparations were being made for US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to visit China early next year.
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Wu said Blinken’s deputy, Wendy Sherman, was likely to visit China soon.

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