According to a statement issued by the US State Department on Saturday, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel J. Kritenbrink is on a visit to China starting Sunday. But as of Sunday afternoon, the Chinese side has not announced anything.
It is rare for the Chinese Foreign Ministry not to disclose any information about a senior US diplomat’s visit to China. The trip, if it is indeed happening, will make Kritenbrink the most senior US diplomat to visit China since Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman visited the country in July 2021.
On Jan 17, Beijing clearly expressed its welcome to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was due to visit China on Feb 5-6, as agreed by the two countries’ leaders during their meeting in Bali, Indonesia, in November. The visit was unilaterally called off by the US side because of the so-called Chinese spy balloon incident. The nonchalance the Chinese side has displayed to the visit this time is a telling sign that Beijing has become more pragmatic toward bilateral interactions.
Kritenbrink is accompanied by the senior national security official for the Chinese mainland and Taiwan island affairs, Sarah Beran.
With Washington’s proposal that the defense ministers of the two countries meet on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on the past weekend given a cold shoulder by Beijing, the visit by Kritenbrink and Beran may prove to be one of the last chances for the two sides to try and find some space in which to maneuver in order to find a diplomatic solution to arrest the deterioration in bilateral relationship.
The whole world knows that it is the US that is resorting to military suppression, trade bullying, diplomatic deception, economic coercion, geopolitical isolation, ideological stigmatization and strategic containment to hinder the development of another country.
About two and a half years after the Joe Biden administration took office, its China policy has been given three descriptors: competition (with guardrails), decoupling and competition(in a rules-based order) and so-called de-risking (in the face of national security threats).
The cross-the-board tensions between China and the US have escalated dramatically in recent months since Washington allowed the meteorological research airship to balloon into such a sensationalized threat to the US.
Washington should save itself the trouble of trying to invent any new concept or discourse to camouflage the nature of its China policy. Beijing now only cares about what Washington does rather than what it says.
Editorial, China Daily
