There are signs of growing mistrust between the US and China, even as the Biden administration and Beijing appeared to be working to restart high-level talks.
President Joe Biden this weekend predicted a “thaw very soon” between Washington and Beijing, the world’s largest economies.
The arrival on Tuesday of Xie Feng, Beijing’s new ambassador to Washington, was a possible indication of closer ties, but the new envoy said the two countries’ relationship faced «serious difficulties and challenges.»
«We hope that the United States will work together with China to increase dialogue, manage differences and also respect our cooperation so that our relationship gets back on the right track,» he told a small crowd of mostly journalists at New John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. York before getting into a van with helpers and family members.
While Xie may have been cautiously optimistic, a senior Chinese diplomat recently shared a more pessimistic assessment of US-China relations at a briefing.
«The bilateral relationship has been frozen once again,» the Chinese diplomat told NBC News, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
The mixed signals serve to show what a rollercoaster ride relations between the countries have been on.
Beijing reacted angrily to last weekend’s Group of Seven, or G7, summit in Hiroshima, Japan, which vowed to cooperate economically with China but to be tougher in areas including «economic coercion,» rights humans, Taiwan, Tibet, Hong Kong and the growing assertiveness of Beijing. in the South China Sea.
Beijing called the statement «slander and lies.»
Things were looking up six months ago after Biden’s meeting with President Xi Jinping in Indonesia, igniting hopes for a new chapter. But relations plummeted to a decades-low low and a planned trip to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken was canceled after a «spy balloon» allegedly gathering information was seen flying over sensitive US military sites in February.
China, which apologized for the incident shortly after the ship appeared over the west coast but later took a more defensive stance, says it was an unmanned civilian weather balloon.
An hour-long meeting between national security adviser Jake Sullivan and China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, on May 11 reignited predictions of further high-level talks. Days before and after a virtual freeze on high-level diplomatic communications between the two countries, US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns met with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Beijing. Then came the G7 this weekend and the furious reaction from China.
But before high-level diplomacy can move forward, with one of Biden’s cabinet members visiting Beijing or a call between Biden and Xi, there are a number of hurdles that China believes need to be addressed, according to the Chinese diplomat who spoke with NBC News, as well as public comment from Chinese media and state officials.
The anonymous Chinese diplomat, who is based in Washington, highlighted three examples of «concerns that have not yet been addressed by the US side.»
Among these is the ongoing FBI investigation into the Chinese balloon shot down by the United States, they said. Privately, Chinese officials are expressing concern that the publication of that investigation could force either party to embarrassingly cancel another meeting or call between Xi and Biden.
The Biden administration has indicated that it wants to move forward.
At the G7, Biden dismissed the so-called spy balloon as a «dumb balloon.» Blinken, meanwhile, did not mention it in his opening remarks at a congressional hearing last week.
The anonymous Chinese diplomat said another concern «It has not yet been addressed by the US side» are the «false allegations,» as the diplomat put it, that China has been operating illegal police stations in New York and other parts of the world. The FBI has arrested two people accused of running one of these police stations in New York, just one of dozens of similar investigations in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands. China says the stations are there to help the diaspora with administrative problems.
The diplomat appeared to rule out a phone call from Biden-Xi in the near future.
«The United States is expected to work with China to address problems in the relationship and create favorable conditions for future interactions between the two top leaders,» the diplomat added.
It will be difficult to achieve favorable terms, especially since US politicians have largely coalesced around the China issue.
“China is an adversary of the United States in every way,” Rep. Nancy Mace, RS.C., said in reaction to the diplomat’s comments.
«We cannot afford to be complacent or passive in the face of China’s continued aggression,» he added in a statement to NBC News.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., a longtime China hawk, stressed the importance of a bipartisan approach toward Beijing in early May.
“If we in the United States rest on our laurels, if we allow the CCP to defeat us, it would have serious consequences for the democratic nations of the world,” he said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
Meanwhile, China appears to believe it can forge closer ties with America’s European allies.
A succession of Chinese diplomats have been touring the mainland, including Foreign Minister Qin Gang and Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs. This week, Li Hui, China’s envoy to Ukraine, will continue a tour of Ukraine, Poland, Germany, France and Russia.
In the G7, an idea promoted by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, gained strength. Rather than «disengage» from China, the West should «de-risk» trade in industries where national interests are at stake. In other words, Europe must continue to dialogue and trade with China, but also challenge Beijing when necessary and protect its vital industries.
This is even as Europe and the US grow closer on the China issue, according to Ian Bremmer, president of the political risk and research consulting firm. eurasia Group, author of «Superpower: Three Options for America’s Role in the World» and frequent commentator on world affairs.
«China is consolidating its economic power in ways that all G7 allies find problematic,» he said on Tuesday.
But von der Leyen, and Europe in general, is not tough enough on China for many in Washington.
“Our European allies must make a decision,” Mace said. «They have to choose whether to stand with China or with the United States, and we can’t let them continue to play both sides.»
And if the Chinese state-controlled media is taken as a barometer of elite opinion of the United States and the state of the relationship, no one in Beijing is holding their breath.
“Talk for the sake of talk will do little to remove obstacles in the way of a strong relationship, which implies concrete steps by Washington to demonstrate complete sincerity and keep its promises,” according to an article published in the state news agency Xinhua earlier in the day. of this month. month.