Yves here. We’ve posting an article from US propaganda information outlet RFE/RFL below as a critical thinking exercise. The piece does wind up highlighting how the US idea of diplomacy seems to equate to coercion. The US imposed yet more sanctions on China, of companies the US depicts as supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine, right before Jake Sullivan went to Beijing for a summit. That visit which included a meeting with President Xi Jinping.
Readers will note that the RFE/RFL account, consistent with the headline we have reproduced above, focuses on China not cooperating with US sanctions on Russia, which China correctly depicts as illegal (by virtue of not having been approved by the UN). It does not mention US economic sanctions on China, particularly on chips and EV tariffs, which look to be to be mainly to try to stymie Chinese development.
By contrast, the stories on the English language Chinese outlet, Global Times, don’t even dignify the US carping about Russia with a mention. That reflects the Chinese position that China’s dealing with other countries are none of the US’ business. See the article, US should view China’s devt in a rational light, Xi tells Sullivan and the editorial, Hope US will also use ‘three responsibilities’ to benchmark its actions, for confirmation. There is only an indirect reference in editorial, mention the sanctions and decrying “camp confrontation”
Some additional takes on the Sullivan visit:
China and the US have made no progress in finding a solution to the Ukrainian crisis, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said. They also failed to come up with any plan. Sullivan arrived in China on 8/27 and met with Xi Jinping and the Foreign Minister. pic.twitter.com/eC5uPAiPHx
— Mike (@Doranimated) August 29, 2024
Jake Sullivan’s three day China visit ended with talks with Xi Jinping.
Sullivan repeated warnings to China on areas such as Ukraine, “unfair trade”, Taiwan and the South China Sea.
It’s clear diplomacy is just another tool for U.S. power projection and China knows it.
While… pic.twitter.com/8655Fz0Hxf
— Danny Haiphong (@SpiritofHo) August 29, 2024
You just shattered Chinese exports of EVs & steel/aluminum to Canada & you want help from Xi on Ukraine?
Sullivan must be delusional! https://t.co/qm52wCIYqt
— MissFina 🇨🇦🇭🇰🇨🇳 (@Love4Spring) August 29, 2024
By RFE/RL. Cross posted from OilPrice
- The US imposed sanctions on Chinese firms believed to be supporting Russia’s war effort, leading to a diplomatic dispute ahead of Jake Sullivan’s visit to Beijing.
- Sullivan’s trip aims to address a range of issues including tensions in the South China Sea, China’s cooperation with Russia, and the conflict in the Middle East.
- Azerbaijan is strengthening ties with China through strategic partnerships and seeking membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS group.
Beijing called recent U.S. sanctions on its companies over the Ukraine war “illegal and unilateral” and “not based on facts,” as White House national-security adviser Jake Sullivan arrived in China for several days of high-level talks.
Here’s what’s going on.
Finding Perspective: Washington has repeatedly warned Beijing over its support for Russia’s defense industrial base and has already issued hundreds of sanctions aimed at curbing Moscow’s ability to exploit certain technologies for military purposes.
The United States imposed sanctions on more than 400 entities and individuals for supporting Russia’s war effort in Ukraine on August 23, including Chinese firms that U.S. officials believe are helping Moscow skirt Western sanctions and build up its military.
One hundred and twenty-three entities were also added to the U.S. export control list known as the Entity List, which forces suppliers to obtain licenses before shipping to targeted companies. Among those added in this most recent batch, 63 entities were based in Russia and 42 in China.
On August 27, ahead of Sullivan’s arrival that same day, Li Hui, China’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs, who has done four rounds of shuttle diplomacy, criticized the sanctions at a briefing for diplomats in Beijing after the latest round of meetings with officials from Brazil, Indonesia, and South Africa.
China has been striving to present itself as a party that is actively looking for a solution to the war in Ukraine, despite skipping a key peace conference in Switzerland this June.
After past rounds of talks led by Li in the spring, Beijing put forward proposals on supporting the exchange of prisoners of war, opposing the use of nuclear and biological weapons, and opposing armed attacks on civilian nuclear facilities, as well as an outline for principles to end the war in February 2023.
Sullivan In China: Sullivan’s trip comes at a time of high tensions in the U.S.-China relationship, with issues like Taiwan, the war in Ukraine, and tensions in the South China Sea flaring up.
The trip is Sullivan’s fifth meeting with Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is also the director of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee Foreign Affairs Commission Office. As the Financial Times recently reported, both officials have been engaged in secret backchannel talks since 2023 following a low point in ties after an incident with a Chinese spy balloon flying over the United States.
The two officials are expected to discuss a litany of issues in Beijing, including tensions in the South China Sea, China’s growing cooperation with Russia, and conflict in the Middle East.
Why It Matters: Talks between Washington and Beijing are never easy and both sides have lots to talk about, but Russia and the war in Ukraine are high on the agenda.
When U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing in April, he warned that Washington would act if China did not stop supplying Russia with microchips and machine parts to build weapons used in Ukraine.
He also accused his Chinese counterparts of “helping to fuel the biggest threat” to European security since the Cold War.
Since then, Chinese companies have been hit with a raft of measures and the threat of further secondary sanctions on other Chinese entities have led to Chinese banks tightening their restrictions on payments from Russia.
Both Sullivan and Wang are hoping to set up a framework for stable relations between their two governments despite their laundry list of issues.
During comments about U.S.-China relations in January at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Sullivan said that he and Wang continued to have “direct” conversations on leading issues, including Ukraine and Russia.
“”Both of us left feeling that we didn’t agree or see eye-to-eye on everything but that there was a lot of work to carry forward,” Sullivan .
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I thought it was a weather balloon..
It was caught spying on US weather.
Consider the source
And not to forget several years ago the high-flying British billionaire, Richard Branson, took a highly publicized high flying passenger balloon trip across western China, a place hard to surveil?, he was supposedly “going round the world” but as soon as he got past western China he did an emergency landing and booked it back to the UK. So these balloons aren’t so unusual.
US foreign policy is in a one way road with no reverse gear. A reverse gear might be an important diplomatic tool. Or maybe at least a 4 wheeled drive to allow taking circuitous bends on the countryside to reach some common ground somewhere? Is US diplomacy like a gigantic truck on a highway to nowhere?
It’s added a faux wokeness, but the guiding light of the foreign policy of DC is orientalism.
These are people who will never see foreigners as equals. Look at the nuttiness of the DNC. It was basically a salute to the US dictating terms. Borrell had his jungle versus garden line. It’s part of the pattern.
that’s a good metaphor, Ignacio. Interesting that in a court trial the “reasonable party” wins. what is it about unreasonableness that offends us and we all recognize it? Chinas three rules of Justice are based on global development, global security, and global civilization. so who can argues? I did read one blurb headline that Sullivan didn’t go to China to discuss our foreign policy, just our trade policy when China threatened to stop exporting rare earths to us. the blurb was a YouTube ad and indicated that the Saudis were stopping stuff too which wasn’t specified. But it disappeared from YouTube before I could get to it. so then today there was speculation that Sullivan was hat-in-hand begging to maintain those rare earths, etc. And had less to do with Russia. The logic for China being that the longer we are bogged down in Ukraine the less likely we will will promote an insurrection in Taiwan.
American ‘diplomats’ such as Sullivan and Blinken would do very well to heed the words of Robert Burns in the final verse of Ode to a Louse, namely:
O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An’ foolish notion:
What airs in dress an’ gait wad lea’e us,
An’ ev’n devotion!
This is damning when you think about it. When Biden was only several weeks into office, they arranged to meet a Chinese delegation in Anchorage, Alaska and the Chinese hope was that the Trump sanctions would be wound back a bit and there would be some sort of detente arranged. Instead it almost ended in a shouting match as China pushed back against US demands to buckle down. Antony Blinken and Jake Sullivan were there it should be noted. And now with Biden on his way out of office you have the same sort of confrontational dialogues with the only difference being that the Biden White House demands that China starts to divorce themselves from Russia. The war is the excuse but if the war stopped tomorrow, the US would still demand this “divorce.” So after nearly four years we are right back full circle to where things started with US-Chinese relations and people like Sullivan did not learn a damned thing-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States%E2%80%93China_talks_in_Alaska
Looking at that photo of Sullivan and Xi shaking hands, I hope that Xi remembered to count his fingers afterwards.
That is a GREAT picture of Sullivan and Xi. The latter has his usual frozen smile. But Sullivan looks like he’s just been badly (for him) put in his place, and is sulking.
Sounds like it was a good meeting. :)-
Maybe Xi suggested sanctioning the US beyond gallium, germanium and rare earths.
I think that the Chinese and the Russians are playing things the same way – with the long view in mind. Sure they could take action against the US by holding back on rare earths or spare parts and emotionally it would be very satisfying – for a while. But the US is still dangerous and it might hit back. So they will hold fire and just wait as they know that every day China grows stronger and the US grows weaker. And when the time comes the US will find itself boxed in. Not by anything that the Chinese have done mind but what the neoliberal system has been doing to the US – hollowing it out from the inside.
That Xi even deigns to meet with Sullivan is something?
Xi has that “I ate your lunch” smile, while Sullivan has that “he ate my lunch” pained look on his face. Sullivan also needs some sun or something.
Ha. Yes, my thinking exactly. Sullivan has an unhealthy pasty complexion, perhaps the result of too many late nights and difficulty sleeping. He and Blinken have been failures throughout Biden’s term. In earlier administrations, facing similar repeated policy initiatives failing, presidents would have shuffled their cabinets and moved on from both men. But TINA in what passes for the foreign policy establishment. Perusing the on-line pages of FP and FA is like entering an echo chamber of hubris, folly, and stupidity. The group think is overwhelmingly Neo-con, and as Mercouris says, they have no reverse gear. When will someone finally say what most of the world already knows: the emperor has no clothes? On the plus side, for Sullivan: his wife seems to have the inside track to replace the retiring Ann Kuster in Congress. Where she’ll be well placed to succeed Jeanne Shaheen if and when Shaheen retires in 2 years. Sleeping with a war criminal hasn’t hurt her campaign one whit. Joyfully–s/–it hasn’t even come up. She is extraordinarily well “credentialed” even by centrist Dem standards. As is her husband. Best and Brightest Redux.
Apparently a Chinese general, in a previous meeting to the one with Xi, told Sullivan that China will reclaim Taiwan by any means and are ready to do it and US can F-off. Sullivan shaken afterwards…
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-03-19/First-session-of-China-U-S-talks-in-Alaska-concludes-YKnP3QNxEQ/index.html
March 19, 2021
China reiterates ‘mutual respect’ as foundation for Alaska talks
Senior Chinese diplomats reiterated mutual respect, sincerity and frankness in addressing relations with the U.S. as the two-day high-level strategic dialogue started in Anchorage, Alaska on Thursday.
China’s stance, “opposition to interference in internal affairs,” was also stressed by Chinese diplomats Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi during talks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
The sit-down marks the first face-to-face meeting between high-level officials of the two sides after the new U.S. administration took office. It also follows the first telephone conversation between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden, after the American leader assumed office in January.
Unreasonable accusations from U.S. rejected
China firmly opposes the U.S. interference in China’s internal affairs and will continue to respond firmly, said Yang Jiechi, referring to issues related with China’s Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang.
Meanwhile, the U.S. side should mind its own business as the human rights situation in the U.S. has many problems, he criticized.
He urged the U.S. to change its zero-sum mentality, abandon such wrong practices as “long-arm jurisdiction,” and stop abusing the concept of national security to interfere with normal trade between the two countries.
“Let me be clear that in front of the Chinese side, the United States does not have the qualification to say that it wants to speak to China from a position of strength,” Yang emphasized.
Wang Yi echoed that China will not accept unreasonable accusations from Washington, urging the U.S. side to completely abandon its tyrannical acts of interference….
The US openly adopted a formal policy of trying to undermine Chinese economic development in April 2011, when President Obama signed the Wolf Amendment preventing Chinese work with NASA on space exploration. US undermining only increased with Trump and Biden. A week does not pass now during which Biden fails to attack a critically important Chinese company.
The point is that the Chinese 1.4 billion are not about to be treated as colonial subjects by the US. China is supposed to be “contained” by the US, but that is not about to happen.
I see Xi who does clearly resemble an extremely indulgent parent and I see Sullivan, who most resembles your average sixth grader in a typical US elementary school. Who should you put your trust in? Mike Liston
I did use a few neurons on the RFE….
Sullivan talks with functionaries and gets a breeze through their boss’ office.
Much better than the US deserves!
US “diplomacy” is in a double bind because on the one hand they see everything as purely transactional, but on the other, what they have to offer is not attractive to anyone anymore. The US has to install puppets to get their way, which is not going to work even medium term. I think we’re in for some nutty times ahead because I can’t predict what these people will do if the realization ever hits that it’s game over. This is still a country with a lot of destructive physical power and the billionaires who run Corporate are going to have demands for results.
“…despite skipping a key peace conference in Switzerland this June.”
You mean the one that Russia wasn’t even invited to attend? How are you supposed to conduct a “peace conference” without one of the two belligerents? You can’t. That wasn’t a “peace conference” it was an explicit attempt to shore-up shaky European governments reeling under the unilateral and illegal U.S. sanctions regime.
A totalitarian regime conducts diplomacy via diktat. If the shoe fits… America is governed by a totalitarian regime. It is impossible to conduct diplomacy with a totalitarian absolutist.
Thanks for pointing that out. I had considered mentioning how that dig was misleading in the opener.
The blind hubris of a declining hegemon on full display, how sad an pathetic.
As Dr. Hudson mentions above: “Maybe Xi suggested sanctioning the US beyond gallium, germanium and rare earths.”
The US “diplomats” best be careful, if bluffs are called, and economic warfare increases (so-called sanctions) it looks like the US economy would suffer much much more than that of China. And the MIC (MICIMATT) would suffer greatly, and further undermine the US ability to produce hi-tech weaponry in quantity. This could expedite the decline of US power abroad
I can only imagine what would happen if there were a full embargo on Chinese goods, or if that is even possible without the US economy collapsing.
I see no mention about US sabotaging the peace talks from March / April 2022 btw Russia and Ukraine. And then Sullivan says that nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine. But Ukraine is being shorted by the US…
I appreciate that China wants to give the impression that it is the reasonable party and therefore will listen to anyone, however deranged. However, after their experience in the last decade it’s hard to believe that they really expect anything to come out of listening to US leaders.
I wonder if they are trying to work out who’s actually in charge in the US government by sizing-up the people who visit? A vulgar Marxist would think it ought to be the money person, so they listen to Yellen. “Nope.” Then a diplomat might think it ought to be the Secretary of State, so they listen to Blinken. “Nope.” The PLA suggests it ought to be the Joint Chiefs, so they talk to them. “Nope.” Now, perhaps, State Security has suggested it must be the security chiefs, and since they can’t talk to the head of the CIA they talk to Sullivan. It seems the answer is again “Nope.”
When a Chinese aircraft carrier anchors in the Potomac to receive the surrender, who indeed will be in the US delegation which shambles sheepishly up the gangway?