Washington:
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated in an interview that aired on Sunday that China had not too long ago acted “more aggressively abroad” and was behaving “increasingly in adversarial ways.”
Asked by CBS News’ “60 Minutes” if Washington was heading toward a military confrontation with Beijing, Blinken stated: “It’s profoundly against the interests of both China and the United States to, to get to that point, or even to head in that direction.”
He added: “What we’ve witnessed over the last several years is China acting more repressively at home and more aggressively abroad. That is a fact.”
Asked about the reported theft of hundreds of billions of dollars or more in U.S. trade secrets and intellectual house by China, Blinken stated the Biden administration had “real concerns” about the IP concern.
He stated it sounded like the actions “of someone who’s trying to compete unfairly and increasingly in adversarial ways. But we’re much more effective and stronger when we’re bringing like-minded and similarly aggrieved countries together to say to Beijing: ‘This can’t stand and it won’t stand.'”
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not straight away respond on Sunday to a request for comment on Blinken’s interview.
On Friday, President Joe Biden’s administration stated China had fallen quick on its commitments to shield American intellectual house in the “Phase 1” U.S.-China trade deal signed last year.
The commitments had been portion of the sweeping deal in between former President Donald Trump’s administration and Beijing, which integrated regulatory modifications on agricultural biotechnology and commitments to acquire some $200 billion in U.S. exports more than two years.
Blinken arrived in London on Sunday for a G7 foreign ministers meeting exactly where China is one of the challenges on the agenda.
In the interview, Blinken stated the United States was not aiming to “contain China” but to “uphold this rules-based order – that China is posing a challenge to. Anyone who poses a challenge to that order, we’re going to stand up and – and defend it.”
Biden has identified competitors with China as his administration’s greatest foreign policy challenge. In his very first speech to Congress last Wednesday, he pledged to retain a sturdy U.S. military presence in the Indo-Pacific and to enhance U.S. technological improvement.
Blinken stated he speaks to Biden “pretty close to daily.”
Last month, Blinken stated the United States was concerned about China’s aggressive actions against Taiwan and warned it would be a “serious mistake” for any one to attempt to alter the status quo in the western Pacific by force.
The United States has a extended-standing commitment below the Taiwan Relations Act to make certain that self-governing Taiwan has the capability to defend itself and to sustain peace and safety in the western Pacific, Blinken stated.
Taiwan has complained more than the previous handful of months of repeated missions by China’s air force close to the island, which China claims as its personal.
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