Why have there been intensive interactions between high-level officials from China and the United States recently? Track | Responsibilities. Here it is | China and the United States

"I am the representative of the Chinese people, and it is my sacred duty to come to defend China's interests. I am the envoy of the Chinese people, and I come to enhance exchanges and cooperation between China and the United States, which is my important mission." On May 23, the newly appointed Chinese Ambassador to the United States, Xie Feng, delivered the aforementioned speech after arriving in New York.

In recent times, "exchange", "contact", and "communication" have become high-frequency terms in China US relations, and the international community's expectations for the recovery of bilateral relations have increased.

The frequency of high-level communication and interaction has significantly increased

However, a series of erroneous words and actions by the United States subsequently led to a stagnation in high-level exchanges between the two countries, and bilateral relations froze once again.

In April, the United States began to lower its tone towards China. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of the Treasury Yellen, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Sullivan and other officials expressed their willingness to engage in dialogue and communication with China, and tried to release easing signals by not seeking "decoupling" from China or seeking conflict between the two countries.Although this is not a one-on-one meeting, it is also a difficult period in China US relations and has attracted external attention.

In May, high-level exchanges between China and the United States gradually resumed, and the frequency of interaction significantly increased. On May 8th, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang met with Burns in Beijing and pointed out that the top priority is to stabilize China US relations, avoid a spiral decline, and prevent accidents between China and the United States. From the 10th to the 11th, Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Working Committee, met with Sullivan in Vienna, Austria. The two sides had frank, in-depth, substantive, and constructive discussions on promoting the elimination of obstacles, stopping the decline, and stabilizing China US relations. On the 11th, Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao met with Burns at the invitation to exchange views on China US economic and trade relations and their respective economic and trade issues of concern. On the 21st, US President Biden told the media during his participation in the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan that he expected relations with China to improve "soon" and called the "balloon incident" foolish. On the 23rd, China's newly appointed Ambassador to the United States, Xie Feng, arrived in the United States to take office and on the 25th, he submitted a copy of his credentials to Secretary of State Gifford and met with US Deputy Secretary of State Newland. The atmosphere of the talks between the two sides was good. From the 25th to the 26th, during his visit to the United States to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Trade Ministers Meeting, Wang Wentao met with US Commerce Secretary Raymond and Trade Representative Dai Qi. The Chinese press release stated that the meeting with the former was "frank, professional, and constructive", while the meeting with the latter was "frank, pragmatic, and in-depth". The US also made a similar positive evaluation.

From the above communication situation, it can be seen that after experiencing a series of tit for tat events, China and the United States are gradually creating favorable conditions for the thawing of bilateral relations by restarting a new round of high-level interaction.

The strategic balance between China and the United States is accelerating its tilt towards China

Currently, China US relations are facing serious difficulties and challenges, with the United States being the initiator. The lifting of the bell still requires people to tie the bell. The United States needs to first take measures to stop and cool the tense relationship between the two countries, which is also a necessary measure to implement the important consensus of the Bali meeting between the two heads of state. Observing this round of interaction between China and the United States, there are several reasons for this:

Firstly, the US recognizes the importance of resuming contact and managing risks between the two countries. After the "unmanned airship" incident, the Biden government, out of domestic political needs, made a lot of hype. It not only unilaterally postponed Antony Blinken's original plan to visit China, interrupted high-level exchanges between the two countries, but also took the highly political performance of shooting down the departing airships with missiles, which seriously damaged the positive momentum of the two countries to implement the consensus of the heads of state and jointly explore ways of getting along, leading to a new low in Sino US relations.

However, for the United States, this has not only failed to bring any tangible benefits, but has also been criticized both domestically and internationally for its unprofessional and completely incorrect handling. During this period, due to the escalating tensions in the Taiwan Strait, the United States has become more acutely aware of the enormous risk of military confrontation and even conflict between the two countries.

In other words, the United States has not yet prepared militarily and diplomatically for derailment and overturning, and a prolonged lack of contact and dialogue will only exacerbate this self fulfilling prophecy. How to prevent the competition between the two countries from slipping into an uncontrollable abyss while striving to "win" China has become a major topic of intense debate within the Biden administration. The prospects of this debate are not yet clear, but at least from the current perspective, the Biden administration believes that both sides need to seriously discuss substantive issues, clarify each other's strategic intentions, and avoid escalating friction and losing control through resuming contact and dialogue.

Secondly, this year, China's diplomacy as a major country with Chinese characteristics has been on the rise, and the strategic balance between China and the United States is accelerating towards China. Since 2023, with China's optimization and adjustment of epidemic prevention policies, orderly resumption of Sino foreign exchanges, and the acceleration of China's diplomacy, China's relations with countries around the world have entered a "fast lane".China has also released two important documents, the Global Security Initiative Concept Paper and China's Position on Political Resolution of the Ukraine Crisis, successfully mediating the restoration of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, making important contributions to promoting the resolution of international and regional security issues, demonstrating China's great national responsibility, responsibility, and demeanor, which has received high attention and positive evaluation from various countries.

At the same time, on issues related to the core interests of national sovereignty, security, and development, China has resolutely launched a struggle against the United States, vigorously retaliated against its erroneous words and actions, and continuously exposed its hegemonic and hegemonic behavior to the international community. As an ally and partner of the United States and a vast number of developing countries, China has achieved remarkable results. In this regard, the US is increasingly feeling that the balance of strategic interaction between the two countries is tilting towards China, and its attempt to "deal with China through strength and status" has failed to meet expectations.

Thirdly, the United States is reflecting and adjusting its policy towards China. In the past two years, the United States has frequently coined new words in its dealings with China, and has recently promoted the so-called "investment, collaboration, and competition" strategy towards China, vowing to do everything possible to win in the competition related to the next decade of national development.

But this strategy did not achieve the expected results. On the one hand, in the context of the Biden administration continuing its trade war, tariff war, technology war, and other measures against China, the trade volume between China and the United States reached a new high in 2022, and the trade deficit between the United States and China continued to expand. The economic and trade relations between the two countries not only did not achieve the so-called "decoupling", but also became even tighter. At the same time, the stabilization and recovery of the Chinese economy in 2023 has attracted global attention, and international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund have raised their expectations for China's economic growth this year, hoping that China will lead the world economy out of the shadow of the epidemic. The international community generally expects China and the United States to manage their economic and trade differences well and work together to bring greater development opportunities to all countries.

Faced with changes in the global economic environment, high domestic inflation, and banking system crises, the embattled Biden administration needs to strengthen communication and dialogue with China on global macroeconomic policies and bilateral economic and trade relations. Recently, Yellen, Raymond, and the US President's climate envoy Kerry have repeatedly released messages hoping to visit China as soon as possible, further indicating the increasing importance of related issues in the US agenda towards China.

On the other hand, the Biden administration's "alliance to control China" strategy is causing increasing backlash and resistance among American allies and partners. For the vast majority of countries in the world, cooperation between China and the United States benefits both sides, while conflict harms both. Choosing sides between China and the United States is not in their best interests. Following the United States in suppressing China will further damage relations with China, disrupt global and regional order, and cause serious harm.

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir recently mentioned that Malaysia is willing to get along friendly with China, but "the United States has been telling people everywhere: please confront China, please pressure China, and sanction China.". These statements to varying degrees reflect the attitudes of European and Asia Pacific countries towards the US policy towards China, and the US is well aware of this.

Can the relationship between the two countries stop falling and stabilize?

The increase in high-level interaction between China and the United States will certainly help stabilize the relationship between the two countries. But it is necessary to first define the nature of this round of interaction and determine whether there has been a fundamental change in the current relationship between the two countries. It should be said that the intensive exchanges between the two countries in the past month or so are primarily aimed at correcting the long-standing abnormal situation since the beginning of the year, and are reasonable choices made based on their respective domestic and foreign environments. From the current perspective, its main achievement lies in the gradual restoration of dialogue channels, and no breakthrough consensus has been reached on the principles of coexistence or functional issues in the bilateral relationship. Therefore, expectations for this round of interaction between the two sides should first remain at the level of cooling off the loss of bilateral relations, and should not inject too many positive expectations. It is even more important to remain clear that Rome was not built in a day, and the significant conflicts and differences between China and the United States cannot be effectively resolved in a short period of time. In other words, increasing high-level communication is only the starting point, not the end result.

Structurally speaking, there are still structural contradictions and vastly different views on the international order between China and the United States, and significant differences still exist on a series of bilateral issues. From the foreseeable future, these issues will not be easily resolved, but are more likely to be presented and amplified in a competitive or even adversarial form. In the National Security Strategy report released at the end of 2022, the Biden administration clearly positioned China as the strongest competitor in the next decade, and this positioning will not be shaken by short-term turmoil.

From a behavioral perspective, the US has not changed its "say it one thing, do it one thing" behavior pattern, and still collaborates with allies of the G7 to issue unprecedented statements related to China, vigorously accusing China of "economic coercion" and planning to issue administrative orders to restrict US companies from investing in high-tech in China.

In short, in the absence of a correct understanding of China and a change in competition and suppression policies towards China by the United States, China US relations may be able to achieve a certain degree of easing through communication and contact. However, to promote the healthy and stable development of the relationship between the two countries, the United States still needs to move towards each other, and both sides need to do a lot of arduous work.

Author Introduction:

Zhang Tengjun, Deputy Director and Associate Researcher of the Asia Pacific Research Institute of the China Academy of International Studies, graduated with a PhD from the School of International Relations at Renmin University of China, mainly engaged in research on American politics and Sino US relations. I have received funding from the Fulbright Program between China and the United States to visit the University of Maryland in the United States. Participated in multiple major and youth projects funded by the National Social Science Foundation, published academic monograph "Congressional Committees and US Decision Making in China", published more than ten academic papers, and published over a hundred current affairs reviews in both Chinese and English on mainstream central media.