Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday committed to confronting China while also seeking to cooperate on shared interests such as climate change.
“It’s …
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday committed to confronting China while also seeking to cooperate on shared interests such as climate change. “It’s not a secret that the relationship between the United States and China is arguably the most important relationship that we have in the world going forward,” he said in response to reporters’ questions during his first press conference as secretary of State. “Increasingly, that relationship has some adversarial aspects to it,” he said, labeling Beijing as both a competitor and a necessary partner on combating climate change. “The cooperative ones are in areas where it’s in our mutual interest to try to work together, including, manifestly, on climate,” he added. Blinken’s remarks served as his introduction to the State Department press corps and his first formal presentation of the Biden administration’s appeal to the benefits of bringing the U.S. back to the global stage and reengaging allies. The press conference stood in contrast to the Trump administration’s “America First” foreign policy that rejected multilateral cooperation in favor of largely transactional bilateral agreements. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, as well as national security officials and experts, have labeled China the biggest national security threat to the United States and the world order and have implored the Biden administration to take a tough stance on confronting Beijing.
