Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks in the State Department’s Ben Franklin Room on March 3, 2021, on the Biden administration’s priorities.
The Biden Administration‘s policy toward the Chinese Communist Party, as articulated in a speech by Secretary of State Antony Blinken on March 3, is tough on rhetoric but difficult to implement, according to a foreign policy expert.
Blinken called the Chinese Communist Party “the greatest geopolitical test of the 21st century” and said that the U.S. relationship with Beijing “should be competitive when it should be, cooperative when it can be, and adversarial when it must be.”
“The common denominator is the need to engage the Chinese Communist Party in a strong posture.” Blinken added.
James Jay Carafano, vice president of foreign and defense policy studies at the Heritage Foundation, a U.S. think tank, told the Epoch Times that Blinken’s speech was “the same old empty rhetoric.
In particular, he criticized Blinken for calling for cooperation with the Chinese Communist Party on certain issues.
“On all the key issues we have with China, we are in opposition [to the Chinese Communist Party]. So how are we going to cooperate?” Carafano said.
Carafano added that the concept of selective cooperation with the Chinese Communist Party is “a failed decades-long concept.
For decades, the U.S. government has engaged with the Chinese Communist regime in the hope that stronger trade and investment ties would lead to democracy in the communist country. The Trump administration has recognized this as a failed concept and has rewritten U.S. policy to focus on confronting the Chinese Communist Party directly about the threat it poses to national security, economic prosperity and freedom.
The Biden administration reiterated what Blinken said about working with the Chinese Communist Party in the Midterm Guidelines for the National Security Strategy, released Wednesday.
According to the guidelines, the United States “will welcome the cooperation of the Chinese Communist government on issues such as climate change, global health security, arms control and nuclear non-proliferation.
Gordon Chang, author of “China’s Impending Collapse,” told the Epoch Times last month that the U.S. is unlikely to cooperate with the regime because of the conditions imposed by the Communist Party.
“The Communist Party is very clear. They say if you don’t cooperate with us on everything, we won’t cooperate on anything.” He said.
Critics argue that the Biden administration has so far announced policies that have benefited Beijing, including rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, re-engaging with the U.N. Human Rights Council, rejoining the World Health Organization and revoking a Trump-era rule related to the Beijing-funded Confucius Institute.
Carafano said Blinken’s entire speech did not convey a coherent strategy.
“My assessment is that these people took office without a plan. They don’t have a plan for the Chinese Communist Party. They don’t have a plan for the Middle East. They don’t have a plan for Russia.” He said.
“We don’t see a clear policy on how to deal with competing powers in the 21st century.”
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