(San Francisco) Xi Jinping’s China is ‘more aggressive’, but the United States still hopes to cooperate on some major issues with the Chinese president, who is about to win a third term, the Secretary of State said on Monday. US State Antony Blinken.
Posted at 4:03 p.m.
The head of the American diplomacy in particular cited the fight against climate change and health issues in a post-pandemic world as themes where the two countries have an interest in working together.
Under Xi, China has become “more repressive at home, more aggressive abroad,” Blinken said in a lecture at Stanford University in California. “And in many cases, this poses a problem vis-à-vis our own interests and our values. »
PHOTO LEAH MILLIS, REUTERS
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
But the relationship between the two great powers “retains aspects of cooperation”, he added. “Some of the big problems we have to try to solve are much harder to solve if the United States and China do not cooperate”, citing in particular “the climate”, “global health” and the fight against human trafficking. drugs.
“Even if they don’t want [coopérer], there is a huge demand from the rest of the world, ”insisted the American Secretary of State. Other countries “expect us to find ways to move forward on these issues together, because it affects them as much as we do”.
The White House released its “National Security Strategy” on Wednesday, in which it reaffirms US President Joe Biden’s strategic priorities.
The document shows that Washington intends to impose itself on China in the long term, by reconciling a logic of “competition” with an adversary who has “the will to change the international order”, while maintaining a logic of “cooperation” with this country which remains the largest trading partner of the United States.
The 20e congress of the Chinese Communist Party began on Sunday and should lead to a third presidential term for Xi Jinping.
Beijing “categorically opposes all forms of hegemonism and power politics, Cold War mentality, interference in other countries’ internal affairs, and practicing ‘double standards'”. explained the Chinese leader by opening the event, in a clear allusion to the United States of which he did not make explicit mention.