The US State Department announced the opening of a department to coordinate work with China. Unofficially, the new structure was called “Chinese House”. Experts believe that in fact the State Department is creating a think tank for collecting and analyzing information about the Middle Kingdom. Details – in the Izvestia article.
China will be taken seriously
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a press release published on December 16, the goal American authorities – gather in one unit “talents, tools and resources” for the successful implementation of the policy towards the PRC. China itself is referred to in this document as “the most complex and serious geopolitical problem.” The politician warned about the need to change approaches back in May, pointing out that the scale and scope of the challenges thrown by China would become an unknown test for American diplomacy.
Blinken is not alone in his concerns. CIA director William Burns later said the same. In October, the agency announced the creation of its own center to counter the PRC.. Speaking about the goals of the new organization, the head of the intelligence service was much more frank than his colleague from the State Department. Burns called the Chinese leadership “hostile and predatory” whose work is focused on “replacing the US as the world’s most influential and powerful power.”.
According to the Sunday China Morning Post, a similar secret unit was created this year within the Pentagon. The large-scale expansion of the expert base on China is not accidental.
US departments are experiencing a serious shortage of specialists in the PRCwhich is a critical issue in the current circumstances. In this sense, the actions of the United States resemble the policy of the USSR in the 1960s of the twentieth century. During the crisis in Soviet-Chinese relations, when cultural exchange was minimal and educational programs curtailed, the country’s leadership also lacked sinologists. To solve this problem, the Institute of the Far East was founded.
There is, however, an exclusively American nuance. Created at once in three key departments, “Chinese departments” will work independently of each other and will certainly begin to compete – a typical case for the huge US state system. Thus, in addition to the main task, they will fight for influence within the ruling class. Some Chinese and American observers have already spoken of the possibility of a “bureaucratic revolution” in the future.
According to the strategy
The U.S. National Security Strategy, released on October 12, called China “the only competitor with both the intent to change the international order and the power to do so.” The desire to compete with him around the globe is proclaimed. Especially in the Asia-Pacific region, which in recent years has become a priority in foreign policy for world powers. The strategy is a guide to action for all structural divisions of the state involved in the foreign policy process, so the opening of new centers within the State Department is an attempt to implement it.
In the “pre-Trump” era, the idea of beneficial coexistence with China dominated among the American elites, but since 2016, when the US first started talking about Cold War 2.0, the approach has changed. Now we are talking not so much about analysts as about specialists who own practical methods of influence, or, as they used to be called, “knights of the cold war.” This was told to Izvestia by Vladimir Vasiliev, chief researcher at the Institute for the USA and Canada.
“Trump insisted on ideological opposition to “communist China” and even accused Beijing of developing the coronavirus in order to remove him from the presidency,” the expert noted. – Under Biden, these conversations faded away, and, apparently, his administration approaches the issue from a practical point of view, directly calling the PRC a geopolitical adversary, that is, a competitor for global leadership. For this reason, now they need specialists of a narrower profile.
The American society is increasingly concerned about the fact that the Chinese influence on domestic political life in the United States is much more tangible than the similar work of Americans inside China, the source added. According to him, China uses financial leverage, hires lobbyists, not to mention the five million Chinese diaspora in the States themselves.
Everyone is calm in Beijing
In China itself, American initiatives were reacted without surprise. According to the authors of the Global Times, the appearance of the “Chinese House” suggests that “US policy towards China is focused on increasingly fierce competition.” Professor of the Institute of International Relations of the China University of Foreign Affairs Li Haidong interview The publication said that the sincerity of Americans to peacefully resolve differences is highly questionable. Otherwise, according to the expert, the United States “would not have committed provocations against the fundamental interests of China.”
Photo: Global Look Press/Xinhua/Li Yunxi
— China is ready for future confrontation, – says Maria Kruglova, senior researcher at the Institute of Economics and the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. – Xi Jinping has included a new generation of leaders in the Central Committee of the Communist Party who have management experience in strategically important areas, such as the aerospace industry. The creation of the “Chinese House” is the US response to the very specific actions of the Chinese leadership to strengthen the global role of their country in defense, scientific, technical and trade aspects.
Biden and his administration have repeatedly acknowledged China’s economic successes, but at the same time expressed concerns about the spread of the Chinese “authoritarian model”, the expert adds. In her opinion, Beijing’s desire to influence the relations of third countries with Taiwan also seriously undermines the position of this American ally in the region.
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