The recent visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to China highlighted the important role of dialogue and cooperation in the bilateral relations, and also demonstrated the U.S. desire for a stable relationship with China, said Chinese experts on Saturday.
Blinken visited China from April 24 to 26 at the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.
"We can see from the trip that the United States obviously attaches great importance to dialogue, and hopes to maintain a stable relationship with China and avoid seeing the relationship spiral out of control, " said Su Xiaohui, deputy director of the department for American Studies, China Institute of International Studies.
"During Blinken's visit to China, China and the United States reached five consensuses, with the first and foremost emphasizing the important guiding role of the head of state diplomacy in the Sino-U.S. relations. The San Francisco vision still needs to be implemented, and both sides should strive for the common goals. However, how to make efforts requires a clear path and specific approaches. Therefore, we can also see from the five consensuses the prioprities of the China-U.S. communication and some directions for cooperation in the next phase," said Su.
However, as the United States will hold president election in 2024, Su cautioned that there might be a tendency that the two parties in the country may engage in competition over China-related issues to vie for more votes.
"During the election year in the United States, it is a common tactic of the Democratic and Republican parties to compete to play the 'China card', vying to demonstrate their hard-line policies towards China. If the Sino-U.S. relations get entangled in the domestic political whirlpool of the United States this year, it will further distort U.S. foreign policy and cause confusion and inconsistency, resulting in increasing risks in its policy towards China. In maintaining communication with the United States, China has consistently emphasized the need to determine the direction for the development of future bilateral relation, that is, both sides should work with each other to achieve mutual benefit and win-win outcomes rather than hurt each other. China has made it clear that it will resolutely safeguard its sovereignty security and development interests, and firmly oppose the increased suppression against it from the United States. At the same time, China seeks to push the Untied States to work together to achieve shared goals with the positive progress the two sides have have made in dialogue and communication," said Su.
The China-U.S. relationship is going to be competitive, but it should be a fair competition, said Gao Fei, vice president of China Foreign Affairs University.
"The China-U.S. relationship is going to be competitive, but it should be a fair competition with win-win results. Between China and the United States, besides competition, there is much more cooperation. Therefore, defining the China-U.S. relationship solely through competition is a biased perspective from the United States," said Gao.
"From China's standpoint, we have always emphasized that China is a responsible major country on the international stage. Even if the United States adopts certain policies, we still maintain our confidence and firmly believe in the direction of historical development. Therefore, in this situation, we still believe that the interaction between China and the United States and the joint search for a basis for cooperation are beneficial to both countries and the world," said the scholar.
Blinken’s visit to China highlights importance of dialogue, cooperation in bilateral ties: experts
