China, U.S., Russia trade blows at Security Council, U.S. proposes rules-based international order, China proposes multilateralism

Secretary of State Blinken: Will Discuss Importance of Multilateral Cooperation, Emphasize Maintenance of Rules-Based International Order as Essential Core Principle

The United Nations Security Council will hold a video conference on Friday (7) on the themes of “Enhancing Global Cooperation” and “Strengthening the Status of the United Nations. Secretary of State Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov will deliver speeches. Although the meeting is only a visual one, it is the first time that the three will participate together. (By Derek Fong)

The Associated Press reports that the State Department said Thursday (6) that Blinken “will discuss the importance of multilateral cooperation and emphasize the maintenance of a rules-based international order as an essential core principle.”

China, which holds the presidency of the Security Council this month, said on its official website that it wants the 15 countries to “reaffirm their strong commitment to multilateralism” as the world faces global challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, according to the report.

Last week, President Joe Biden stressed to Congress that the United States must ensure that it can deal with China, that the U.S. government sees the Chinese Communist Party as a strategic challenger and that the United States must prove that democracy can still work in the world and maintain its primacy.

Friday’s meeting was the first public high-level “engagement” between the U.S. and China since the March 18 meeting that ended badly. Blinken made clear at the time that the U.S. government was working with allies to oppose China’s growing authoritarianism at home and abroad, including the Communist regime’s actions against Hong Kong and Taiwan, but also against the Uighurs in Xinjiang and in the South China Sea. Yang Jiechi, a member of the Communist Party’s Politburo and director of the Central Committee’s Foreign Affairs Working Committee Office, who participated in the meeting at the time, responded that “the United States is not qualified to speak to China from above, and the Chinese do not eat that.”