Mauro Gia Samonte
A recent diplomatic dialogue between the United States and China in Anchorage, Alaska can be a breath-taker for people stressed by festering thoughts of armed conflict exploding between the two superpowers sooner or later. The South China Sea tension, for one thing, continues to simmer with the United States insisting on “freedom of navigation operations” in the Indo-Pacific region.
The talks were attended by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Chinese Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs Yang Jiechi and State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. They met at the initiative of the United States, ever the one more prone to resorting to military options in settling differences. And the dialogue came about as a development of an earlier phone conversation between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping. For the US to invite China to such talks early on in the Biden administration must indicate some substantial lessening of the potential of war in the Indo-Pacific area.
So, a concerned observer necessarily lets out a sigh of relief at realizing that the two world powers are about to talk peace. And yet, as early as the opening statements of the two sides, the atmosphere was far from noncombative.
Here’s Blinken’s initial stance, as quoted from the transcript of the event:
“Well, good afternoon, and welcome. On behalf of national security adviser Sullivan and myself, I want to welcome Director Yang and State Councilor Wang to Alaska, and to thank you very much for making the journey to be with us.
“I just returned myself from meetings with Secretary of Defense [Lloyd] Austin and our counterparts in Japan and the Republic of Korea, two of our nation’s closest allies. They were very interested in the discussions that we’ll have here today and tomorrow because the issues that we’ll raise are relevant not only to China and the United States, but to others across the region and indeed around the world. Our administration is committed to leading with diplomacy to advance the interests of the United States and to strengthen the rules-based international order.
“That system is not an abstraction. It helps countries resolve differences peacefully, coordinate multilateral efforts effectively and participate in global commerce with the assurance that everyone is following the same rules. The alternative to a rules-based order is a world in which might makes right and winners take all, and that would be a far more violent and unstable world for all of us. Today, we’ll have an opportunity to discuss key priorities, both domestic and global, so that China can better understand our administration’s intentions and approach.”
And in total support of that stance, Sullivan telegraphed his own punches in the exchanges to come:
“It’s fitting that we’re meeting here in Alaska. We may be far from the continental United States, but there are few places that are as quintessentially American: big-hearted, resilient, intrepid. This is truly a fitting place for us to host this meeting.
“Secretary Blinken and I are proud of the story about America we’re able to tell here, about a country that, under President Biden’s leadership, has made major strides to control the pandemic, to rescue our economy and to affirm the strength and staying power of our democracy. We’re particularly proud of the work that we’ve done to revitalize our alliances and partnerships, the foundation of our foreign policy. Just last week, President Biden hosted the Quad leaders’ summit that spoke to the can-do spirit of the world’s democracies and committed to realize the vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific. It is through partnerships like these that all of us can deliver progress and prosperity for our peoples.”
It is evident from the declarations above that no matter the diplomatic language used to express it, the United States hasn’t budged from its role as the world’s supreme bully.
It is to the credit of the Chinese side that the early American jabs had not gone undetected by their keen senses and had been met with already effective counter-punches.
Here’s Yang’s own quick jab:
“For China, we are now in a historic year where we will move from finishing the first centenary goal to the second centenary goal, and by the year 2035 China will surely achieve basic modernization. And by the year 2050, China will achieve full modernization. China has made decisive achievements and important strategic gains in fighting Covid-19, and we have achieved a full victory in ending absolute poverty in China. China’s per-capita GDP is only one-fifth of that of the United States, but we have managed to end absolute poverty for all people in China. And we hope that other countries, especially the advanced countries, will make similar efforts in this regard. And China has also made historic achievements in building the country into a moderately prosperous one in all respects. The Chinese people are wholly rallying around the Communist Party of China. Our values are the same as the common values of humanity. Those are: peace, development, fairness, justice, freedom and democracy.
“What China and the international community follow or uphold is the United Nations-centered international system and the international order underpinned by international law, not what is advocated by a small number of countries of the so-called rules-based international order. And the United States has its style — United States-style democracy — and China has the Chinese-style democracy. It is not just up to the American people, but also the people of the world, to evaluate how the United States has done in advancing its own democracy. In China’s case, after decades of reform and opening up, we have come a long way in various fields. In particular, we have engaged in tireless efforts to contribute to the peace and development of the world, and to upholding the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.
“The wars in this world are launched by some other countries, which have resulted in massive casualties. But for China, what we have asked for, for other countries, is to follow a path of peaceful development, and this is the purpose of our foreign policy. We do not believe in invading through the use of force, or to topple other regimes through various means, or to massacre the people of other countries, because all of those would only cause turmoil and instability in this world. And at the end of the day, all of those would not serve the United States well.
“So, we believe that it is important for the United States to change its own image and to stop advancing its own democracy in the rest of the world. Many people within the United States actually have little confidence in the democracy of the United States, and they have various views regarding the government of the United States. In China, according to opinion polls, the leaders of China have the wide support of the Chinese people. So, no attempt to — the opinion polls conducted in the United States show that the leaders of China have the support of the Chinese people. “No attempt to smear China’s social system would get anywhere. Facts have shown that such practices would only lead the Chinese people to rally more closely around the Communist Party of China and work steadily toward the goals that we have set for ourselves.”
Source：Manila Times 21-03-2021