"We are not looking for conflict or a new Cold War. To the contrary, we’re determined to avoid both," Blinken announced while speaking at George Washington University in D.C.
The secretary of state announced that the Biden administration does not want to block China’s economic growth or even its role as a world power.
Rather, Blinken announced the U.S. will be taking a new approach to its top rival and stated that Washington will work with allies to strengthen international laws and institutions to shore up democratic values and maintain peace and security.
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"We cannot rely on Beijing to change its trajectory. So we will shape the strategic environment around Beijing to advance our vision for an open, inclusive international system," he stated.
Blinken’s remarks come as Western nations have grown increasingly concerned that Beijing could feel emboldened by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brazen war in Ukraine and take similar steps against Taiwan.
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"Even as President Putin's war continues, we will remain focused on the most serious long-term challenge to the international order — and that's posed by the People's Republic of China," Blinken announced.
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"The United States and China have to deal with each other for the foreseeable future," he went on, insisting U.S.-China relations were one of the "most complex and consequential relationships" in the world today.
Senior China Fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former U.S. diplomat, Craig Singleton, explained to Fox News the secretary’s remarks Thursday were "better late than never."
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But he went on, "There remain deep divisions within the Biden administration regarding major aspects of the U.S.-China strategic rivalry."
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"Absent a clearer directive from the president himself, the inter-agency will likely remain dogged by ‘analysis paralysis’," he claimed.
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Singleton announced he would like to see clearly stated policy objectives when it comes to dealing with Beijing on an array of matters from global security to trade.
The national security specialist further cautioned against the U.S. pursuing a strategy with China that assumes Beijing's power is still on the rise, claiming that leadership mismanagement in the wake of the pandemic by Chinese President Xi Jinping "has both hastened China’s rapid economic slowdown and exposed major deficiencies in the Chinese Communist Party’s governance model."
"The risk then is that Washington is committing itself to a counter-China strategy predicated on China’s rise, rather than one that seeks to safely manage China’s seeming decline," he went on.
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