Blinken remarks China’s “more aggressive” actions

“China is acting more repressively and aggressively,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday (local time). He repeatedly emphasized cooperation with allies by saying that the key of the U.S. policy toward China is to uphold the international community’s rules-based order against China.

“What we've witnessed over the last several years is China acting more repressively at home and more aggressively abroad. That is a fact,” said Blinken during an interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday. He argued that China is the one country in the world that has the military, economic, diplomatic capacity to undermine or challenge the rules-based order. “I think that over time, China believes that it can be and should be and will be the dominant country in the world,” he said when asked what the goal of China is. However, he drew a line by saying that it is profoundly against the interests of both China and the United States to get to that point or even to head in that direction when the host asked if he thinks the U.S. is heading towards some sort of military confrontation with China.

“President Biden made clear that we have real concerns about the actions that China has taken, and that includes the theft of intellectual property,” said the secretary of state. He even directly criticized China’s human rights issues by calling the Chinese authorities’ violation of human rights against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang a genocide. “Look, we don't have the luxury of not dealing with China. There are real complexities to the relationship, whether it's the adversarial piece, whether it's the competitive piece, whether it's the cooperative piece.”

When the host mentioned that China's gross domestic product is expected to surpass the U.S. as early as 2028, Blinken said that what really makes the wealth of a nation is human resources and the ability of any one country to maximize its potential. “I think we're in a much better place to maximize that (than China).” He also reconfirmed that the U.S. will cooperate with its allies and partners that share the same values.


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