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SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN AT A PRESS AVAILABILITY

APRIL 26, 2024

By U.S. MISSION CHINA

ANTONY J. BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE

BEIJING, PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

APRIL 26, 2024

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, good evening, everyone. Ten months ago, I traveled to the People’s Republic of China at a time of profound tension between our countries with the aim of stabilizing the relationship, reopening and strengthening our high-level channels of communication. Over a series of candid and constructive conversations I had then with President Xi and other senior officials, I made clear our policies and intentions, and identified issues of shared interest where we might work together. Those discussions, which were followed by additional senior-level visits and meetings between our governments, helped lay the foundation for a productive summit between President Biden and President Xi in San Francisco at the end of last year. Our leaders agreed on concrete steps to cooperate on issues that matter to our people and matter to the world and reduce the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculation.

In the months since then, we focused intensively on advancing those commitments. I returned to China this week to take stock of where we’ve made progress and where more needs to be done so that we can deliver tangible results for the American people. That’s been the focus of my meetings with President Xi, with Director and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, with the Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong, and the Shanhai Party Secretary Chen Jining.

Since the Woodside summit, we have advanced our cooperation on fentanyl and other synthetic drugs – the number-one killer of Americans between the ages of 18 and 45. Specifically, the PRC has issued a public notice to industry, it’s taken enforcement action against some companies that produce precursors – those are the chemical ingredients that make up synthetic drugs. And the U.S. and China have set up a joint Counternarcotics Working Group to collaborate on policy making and on law enforcement, and to share technical expertise. Thanks in large part to the working group’s efforts, China is providing information to international law enforcement that can be used to track and intercept illicit drugs and their precursors, and our two governments recently agreed to share best practices on closing loopholes in our financial systems that the drug traffickers and other criminal enterprises use to launder money.

So this is important progress, but more needs to be done. In my discussions, I underscored the importance of the PRC taking additional action, in particular by prosecuting those who are selling chemicals and equipment used to make fentanyl, meeting its international commitments to regulate all of the precursors that are controlled by the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, and disrupting illicit financing networks.

Since the Woodside meeting between the presidents, we’ve also resumed direct military-to-military communications at multiple levels – something that I made a top priority for my meetings in Beijing last year. U.S. and PRC defense officials met for two days at the Pentagon in January. Earlier this month, our two countries’ air and naval forces held talks aimed at ensuring safer interactions. Last week, Secretary of Defense Austin had his first video call with Minister of Defense Dong Jun. Direct, open, clear lines of communication like these are critical to avoiding miscalculations.

I’m pleased to announce that earlier today, we agreed to hold the first U.S.-PRC talks on artificial intelligence to be held in the coming weeks. We’ll share our respective views on the risks and safety concerns around advanced AI and how best to manage them. We also spoke about ways that we can continue to grow people-to-people ties between our countries, particularly educational exchanges. Our governments have a vested interest in creating open and welcoming conditions for these programs which have long enriched both of our countries.

As you know, I had a chance yesterday to meet with a few dozen American and Chinese students who are learning side by side at the NYU Shanghai program as well as in other joint U.S.-PRC university programs in China. I heard how the experiences deepened their knowledge inside and outside the classroom and forged ties that will last well beyond their shared educational experience. While there are more than 290,000 Chinese students in the United States, there are fewer than 900 Americans studying here in China, and that’s a significant drop from a decade ago when we had about 15,000 Americans studying here. President Xi said that he wants to significantly increase the number of Americans studying here in the coming years, and that’s something that we support.

We have an interest in this, because if our future leaders – whether it’s in government, whether it’s in business, civil society, climate, tech, and other fields – if they’re going to be able to collaborate, if they want to be able to solve big problems, if they’re going to be able to work through our differences, they’ll need to know and understand each other, language, culture, history. What I told my PRC counterparts on this visit is if they want to attract more Americans here to China, particularly students, the best way to do that is to create the conditions that allow learning to flourish anywhere – a free and open discussion of ideas, access to a wide range of information, ease of travel, confidence in the safety, security, and privacy of the participants.

Now, even as we seek to deepen cooperation where our interests align, the United States is very clear-eyed about the challenges posed by the PRC and about our competing visions for the future. America will always defend our core interests and values. In my discussions today, I reiterated our serious concern about the PRC providing components that are powering Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine. China is the top supplier of machine tools, microelectronics, nitrocellulose – which is critical to making munitions and rocket propellants, and other dual-use items that Moscow is using to ramp up its defense industrial base, a defense industrial base that is churning out rockets, drones, tanks, and other weapons that President Putin is using to invade a sovereign country, to demolish its power grid and other civilian infrastructure, to kill innocent children, women, and men. Russia would struggle to sustain its assault on Ukraine without China’s support.

In my meetings with NATO Allies earlier this month and with our G7 partners just last week, I heard that same message: fueling Russia’s defense industrial base not only threatens Ukrainian security; it threatens European security. Beijing cannot achieve better relations with Europe while supporting the greatest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War. As we’ve told China for some time, ensuring transatlantic security is a core U.S. interest. In our discussions today, I made clear that if China does not address this problem, we will.

I also expressed our concern about the PRC’s unfair trade practices and the potential consequences of industrial overcapacity to global and U.S. markets, especially in a number of key industries that will drive the 21st century economy, like solar panels, electric vehicles, and the batteries that power them. China alone is producing more than 100 percent of global demand for these products, flooding markets, undermining competition, putting at risk livelihoods and businesses around the world.

Now, this is a movie that we’ve seen before, and we know how it ends – with American businesses shuttered and American jobs lost. President Biden will not let this happen on his watch. We’ll do what’s necessary to ensure that American workers can compete on a level playing field. America’s actions are not aimed at holding back China’s development, nor are we decoupling our economies. As Secretary Yellen said during her recent visit, that would be disastrous for the global economy, including for the United States. We want China’s economy to grow. So do the American businesses and investors here, several of whom I had an opportunity to speak to in Shanghai. But the way China grows matters. As I told my counterpart, that means fostering a healthy economic relationship where American workers and firms are treated equally and fairly.

In today’s meetings I discussed the PRC’s dangerous actions in the South China Sea, including against routine Philippine maintenance operations and maritime operations near the Second Thomas Shoal. Freedom of navigation and commerce in these waterways is not only critical to the Philippines, but to the U.S. and to every other nation in the Indo-Pacific and indeed around the world. That’s why so many nations have expressed concern about the PRC’s maritime maneuvers.

I made clear that while the U.S. will continue to work to de-escalate tensions, our defense commitments to the Philippines remain ironclad. I reaffirmed the U.S.’s “one China” policy and stressed the critical importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

I raised the cases of American citizens who are wrongfully detained and those who are subject to exit bans. President Biden and I will not rest until they’re back with their families where they belong. I also raised concerns about the erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy and democratic institutions as well as transnational repression, ongoing human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Tibet, and a number of individual human rights cases.

We spoke about press freedom and access. I appreciate that the PRC grantedhttps://china.usembassy-china.org.cn/secretary-antony-j-blinken-at-a-press-availability-12/