The United States has ramped up pressure on China in trade, technology and defence ahead of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip this weekend, and Washington’s strategy to contain Beijing is unlikely to change after the talks, according to analysts. Blinken’s visit to China will be the first by a US secretary of state in five years. As the highly anticipated trip approaches, tensions between the world’s two biggest economies show few signs of easing. On Tuesday, the US released its annual “notorious markets” list identifying major Chinese e-commerce platforms accused of failing to crack down on the trade of counterfeit goods. The list included units owned by Alibaba Group, which owns the South China Morning Post, and Tencent. And earlier this week, US and Indian officials held a dialogue on the US-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies, which aims to deepen defence and tech cooperation between the two countries. The initiative, announced by US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May, is seen as a move to compete with China in the hi-tech sector. That followed the introduction of a bill last week by Republican members of Congress to revert China’s “most favoured nation” trade status to the pre-2001 status quo, requiring it to be reviewed every year by the president with congressional approval. Zhu Feng, an international affairs professor at Nanjing University and expert on US-China ties, said measures targeting China ahead of Blinken’s visit would affect the talks. Beijing urges US to ‘end obsession with containing China’ “The United States is desperately suppressing China on one hand and asking for cooperation with China on the other hand. It is very difficult for China’s policies to meet the expectations of the US,” he said. “And now the US Congress wants to revoke the most favoured nation trade status. This is completely contrary to the basic principle of the relationship between the two countries.” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday that Blinken was expected to seek resumption of defence and climate change dialogues, which were suspended after former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August. Kirby added that the State of the Union address, to be delivered by Biden after Blinken’s visit, would discuss the “challenges” posed by Russia and China. Lu Xiang, a US-China relations expert with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said it was not surprising that Washington had taken aim at Beijing to “exert pressure” and maximise its desired outcomes from the talks. He said the US strategy to contain China’s rise in technology, the economy and defence would continue even after Blinken’s visit. “It is very clear now that the US wants to suppress China’s development, and China will not stop its own development, so this conflict will never be resolved, even in the next few years or decades,” he said. “It remains to be seen whether Blinken will allow some space for practical cooperation between the two parties.” Blinken trip unlikely to fix US-China ties but Russia talk promising: analysts Lu said trade and economic talks could possibly continue following last month’s meeting between US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Vice-Premier Liu He, China’s top economic adviser, at the World Economic Forum in Davos. During their talks, Liu warned Yellen of the impact of US economic and tech policies towards China. The US has stepped up measures to protect its national interests by targeting China’s hi-tech sector, including banning US companies from selling products or transferring semiconductor technologies since last year. “If a relatively large space is created for [economic dialogues], it means that there are opportunities for improvement between the two countries,” Lu said. “But if [the US] only presses on those ‘strategic issues’, I don’t think there is much room for improvement.”