Blinken: US Not Trying to Contain China

Secretary of State Antony Blinken had a lengthy conversation with Chinese officials last week over Beijing’s belief that the United States is trying to “contain” it economically.

In remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations last week, Mr. Blinken said he sought to ensure the Chinese that Washington does not want to contain China.

“From China’s perspective, no surprise to people here, is that our purpose is to contain them, to hold them down to hold them back globally and economically,” he said. “And the fact of the matter is it’s not, and it’s also not in our interests to do that. China sees us as being engaged in decoupling.”

Mr. Blinken said his response was to point out that the facts show the two economies are just as closely connected as ever. “Our trade with China last year reached the highest level ever. We had more foreign direct investment going to China last year than in any year since 2014.”

Export Controls

Beijing is unhappy with US export controls and sanctions, but those are very targeted, he said.

“Yes, we have export controls, we have sanctions on individuals and Chinese entities – about a thousand or so, all told. There are 48 million companies registered in China, so that’s hardly decoupling; if we’ve got very targeted restrictions on, I think it’s .0001 percent of the companies in China.”

It is not in the US interest to hold China back. “We don’t want to be the only engine for growth in the world,” he stated. “We want to see a China that’s actually succeeding economically. It’s in our interest. But equally – and again, I shared this with our counterparts – how is it in our interest to allow them to get technology that they may turn around and use against us, whether it’s in building a very opaque nuclear weapons program and expanding it at a very rapid pace, developing hypersonic missiles, using AI potentially for repressive purposes?”