Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated the Biden administration’s position that it would not be in “our interest” to decouple from China during a Monday press conference in Beijing held after talks with genocidal Chinese dictator Xi Jinping.
Blinken’s two-day trip to China marks the first time a U.S. secretary of state has met with Xi since 2018. After his meeting with Xi, Blinken reiterated that the administration is “not about decoupling” from China; instead, they are about “de-risking and diversifying.”
President Joe Biden made similar remarks during the G7 summit last month, saying, “We’re not looking to decouple from China, we’re looking to de-risk and diversify our relationship with China.”
Bloomberg’s Iain Marlow asked Blinken the following question at the press conference:
China has accused the U.S. of economic containment over the Biden administration’s efforts to limit Beijing’s access to key technology, including semiconductors, as you mentioned. Are you worried that the future U.S. moves in that area will derail the current efforts to stabilize ties with China, and might force the Chinese to take retaliatory measures, perhaps, in other areas of the relationship?
Blinken told Marlow it was “important” for him to “disabuse our Chinese hosts of the notion that we are seeking to economically contain them” while on his trip.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken shakes hands with China’s President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on June 19, 2023. (Photo by LEAH MILLIS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
“We’re not. And as I’ve said, we are not about decoupling; we’re about de-risking and diversifying,” Blinken repeated.
Americans have lost nearly four million jobs since 2001 due to free trade with China, of which close to three million are in the manufacturing sector, as Breitbart News reported.
Breitbart News’s John Binder detailed:
Those massive job losses have coincided with a booming U.S.-China trade deficit.
In 1985, before China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO), the U.S. trade deficit with China totaled $6 billion. In 2022, the U.S. trade deficit with China totaled more than $383 billion.
While skyrocketing U.S. trade deficits have led to economic devastation, tariffs would be a boon for reshoring jobs and boosting wages. One such study finds that tariffs on nearly all foreign imports would create about ten million American jobs while boosting domestic output.
Despite these facts and U.S. lawmakers’ calls to decouple from China, Blinken claimed it is “profoundly in our interest” for American companies to continue doing business in China.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on June 19, 2023. (Photo by LEAH MILLIS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
“We have many American companies that I met with, or at least their representatives here, including the Chamber of Commerce, that continue to be very interested to do business here — and it’s profoundly in our interest,” Blinken said, according to a State Department transcript of his remarks.
The secretary of state claimed that “China’s broad economic success is also in our interest.”
“We have done a remarkable job rebounding from COVID and having a growing economy — very low unemployment, tremendous investments in our future,” Blinken said. “But we also benefit tremendously when there is growth and progress in other countries — especially of one of the world’s largest economies, when it comes to China. So, it simply would not be in our interest to seek to decouple.”
Blinken also reiterated Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s position that decoupling from China would be “disastrous.”
However, Blinken did mention that it is “not in our interest” to provide China with technology that could be used for defense purposes.
“However, what is clearly in our interest is making sure that certain specific technologies that China may be using to, for example: advance its very opaque nuclear weapons program, to build hypersonic missiles, to use technology that may have repressive purposes — it’s not in our interest to provide that technology to China,” he added.
Related: Biden’s Secretary of State Blinken Says, “We Do Not Support Taiwan Independence” While Visiting China
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jdixonhamilton@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter.