It seems clear that both Washington and Beijing are taking one step forward and delaying another! Between mutual espionage, challenges and fierce competition, rivalry is escalating, acquiring global dimensions and threatening confrontation, and the horizon of rapprochement is narrowing day by day. And in a rare direct criticism of Washington, President Xi Jinping said the United States was waging a campaign to “contain, encircle and suppress” China, creating “unprecedented challenges to our country’s development.” , which likely reflects Beijing’s growing pessimism about China’s relationship with the United States.
But she stressed that US intelligence believes Beijing is committed to preventing these points of tension from escalating into confrontation and maintaining a stable bilateral relationship.
She said: “The Chinese president wants a period of relative calm to give China the time and stability it needs to deal with its growing internal difficulties.” and does not want a new cold war.
And US officials are willing to resume talks with Beijing “in due course” following the issue of a Chinese balloon the United States dropped in its airspace, and President Joe Biden confirmed in his State of the Union address that he wanted to speak to his Chinese counterpart, but the rapprochement that began during the meeting in Bali in November between Biden and Xi did not lead to a result. This venture was hampered by a balloon incident that Washington confirmed was a spy balloon, while Beijing announced it was a meteorological incident, demonstrating the fragility of the historically tense relationship.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has postponed a long-awaited visit to Beijing in early February, although he met with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in mid-February.
In what were described as “tense” talks, Blinken warned Beijing against providing any military assistance to Russia in the war it is waging against Ukraine.
The US then launched a campaign confirming that Beijing is looking into helping Russia, which China denies, and warning against crossing that red line.
Jacob Stokes of the Center for New American Security Studies said in an interview with Agence France-Presse that “the relationship is deteriorating and it is clear that it has entered a cycle in which each of the two sides strikes one blow after another. , and the way out of this situation is not clear.
He continued, “The rhetoric about China will escalate and intensify as the 2024 U.S. presidential election approaches.”
The Republican-dominated U.S. House of Representatives has formed a special committee on “strategic rivalry” with Beijing, even if it threatens to prevail, and in order not to be in a position of “weakness” in the face of what constitutes an “existential danger” as the Republican spokesman put it.
The head of the Comfort Arrow International Crisis Group recently told reporters, “There is no direct line of communication, and this is a cause for concern,” noting that the Cold War era between the United States and Russia was characterized by the presence of a red line between the two sides, and pointed out that the issue of balloon “strongly reminded us that we need direct lines of communication.” To prevent the situation from getting out of control.
