After 15 days of Biden’s launch… Conflict with the first calls of the heads of diplomats in the US and China

Will the honeymoon period of’G2′ end as it is? US Secretary of State Anthony Blincoln and Chinese Communist Party diplomat politician Yang Jietsu clashed with US Secretary of State Anthony Blincoln on the 5th day (local time) after the US administration’s inauguration last month. On this day, the head of diplomatic relations between the United States and China clashed during the first phone call.

According to the US State Department, Secretary Blincoln discussed the sensitive issue of China’s allergic reaction in his first call. “The US will continue to defend human rights and democracy values, including Xinjiang Uighur, Tibet and Hong Kong issues,” said Secretary Blincoln. “China should join the international community that criticizes the military coup in Burma (Myanmar).” “The United States will work with allies and partners of the United States and protect our values ​​and interests to hold accountability for the CCP’s attempts to undermine international norms and threaten stability in the Indo-Pacific region including the Taiwan Strait. I will.”

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs also did not hide the criticism. Both lawmakers said, “The Taiwan problem is a problem of China’s sovereignty and territories,” and said, “All problems, including Hong Kong, are China’s internal affairs and cannot allow any interference from outside forces.” “China will correct the mistakes the United States has made over a period of time,” he said. “Both China and the United States should respect each other, and no attempt to blaspheme China can be realized.”

On this day, the currency of the head of diplomatic relations between the US and China was made ahead of the currency of President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping. At the first high-level contact, the two sides can be honest with their feelings, and a softer atmosphere may be created in the talks between leaders. Nevertheless, there are observations that the US-China conflict will not be as easy in the Biden era as well as the Trump era, as each pending issue in front of both countries is difficult.

President Xi was one of the world’s top leaders who belatedly sent a congratulatory letter to President Biden after the US presidential election last year. At the time, Xi sent a message of reconciliation, saying, “Let both sides avoid conflict and opposition and promote world peace.”

Earlier, the Trump administration launched an onslaught on the Chinese Communist Party until the end of the term. In December, 14 vice-chairmen of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, which is the equivalent of the Chinese National Assembly, were added to the list of sanctions and approved the export of arms to Taiwan. The Chinese government also struck a fire on 28 high-ranking officials in the Trump administration, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on 21 (local time) last month. There were expectations that the conflict between the US and China would be relatively mitigated by the launch of the Biden government, but there is also a prospect that the intensity of the conflict could only be changed only by a different aspect.

The conflict between the United States and China in the Biden era is highly likely to shift to a fight for leadership in the multilateral stage. President Biden visited the State Department on the 4th (local time) and emphasized the sentence “America is back” twice. On this day, he presented a diplomatic sketch to restore alliance diplomacy, restore US leadership around the world, and check China and Russia. In this regard, Japanese media such as Kyodo News reported on the 7th (local time) that the Biden government is promoting the quad (US, Japan, India, Australia) summit of four countries.

Prior to this, Xi stressed that “multilateralism must be restored” in a speech at the Davos Forum held on the 25th of last month (local time). “We must not sanction and isolate others by creating’small circles’ and’new cold war’ on the international stage,” he stressed, “selective multilateralism should not be our choice.” China used a strategy of gradually eroding the US space in multilateral consultative bodies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) in the Trump era.

New variables that emerge after the inauguration of the Biden government are also complicating the function of improving US-China relations. A typical example is that the pro-Chinese military commanded a coup in Myanmar on the 1st (local time) during the US regime change. Myanmar is geographically close to India, Thailand, and Vietnam, and borders on China, so it is said to be an important paving stone in Asia for the United States. There is a dilemma that Myanmar, which is a key point because the new military is imprisoned, can pass over to China, and that it goes against the values ​​of’American democracy’ that the Biden government puts ahead.

Regarding this, Kim Han-kwon, a professor at the National Institute of Foreign Affairs, said, “It is the situation of the US’s choice between the reality of China’s check and the value of restoring world leadership.”

At the same time, China and Russia are getting closer together. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, on December 28 last year, President Xi sent New Year’s greetings to President Vladimir Putin over the phone and proposed a’China-Russian coalition plan’ to respond to the coronavirus. The two countries are also celebrating the 20th anniversary of the friendship agreement this year.

The Biden government is in a position to move Russia and bring China into the arms control system. “This is just the beginning of solving our 21st century security challenges,” while signing an extension agreement with Russia on the’New Start’, a new strategic arms reduction agreement with Russia on the 3rd. “The US government, along with its allies, will modernize China. “We will seek arms control to reduce the growing threat of nuclear weapons.” Such comments on China were not included in the data released by Russia.

Reporter Lee Yoo-jung [email protected]