In the long-term war of nerves between the United States and China, another battle has taken place.
There are no winners again - the American scythe found a Chinese stone, and on that they parted.
However, this most recent skirmish, in the center of which Russia was, nevertheless differs from others not in these painfully familiar formulations, but not in the hidden geopolitical context inscribed in them, which is changing before our eyes.
This is the time to talk about this.
So, the spark for the skirmish that broke out was the statement by US State Department spokesman Ned Price, who warned that China "will pay a very high price" if it helps Russia bypass US sanctions.
According to the American official, the United States intends to collect this unnamed price from Beijing not alone, but together with dozens of allies, whom he, however, did not name.
As happens in such cases, Ned Price immediately responded to the official representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Zhao Lijian, and did it very harshly.
Pointing out that Ned Price's statements were made in the manner of a "world policeman", the Chinese diplomat turned the ball over to Washington.
According to him, it was the United States that became the instigator and the main driving force of the Ukrainian crisis, in connection with which they need not to twist the hands of others, but to start the restructuring of the world so desired by them from themselves.
Namely, seriously think about their erroneous actions and stop using the Ukrainian issue to provoke a new Cold War.
Despite the fact that it would seem that we did not learn anything fundamentally new from this diplomatic duel, there are curious nuances in this whole story, if you think about it.
Firstly, Ned Price says that all this will cost China “very expensive”, but he does not say exactly how much and in what units he measures this price - in dollars, in yuan?
Or are we talking about some completely different exorbitant price - political, diplomatic, image, which can not be measured by any dollar-yuan?
But Ned Price is silent about this.
So - just "very expensive."
Let everyone understand how they want.
“Ned, is it as “very expensive” as Saudi Arabia?
Will you also make an outcast from Beijing?”
- asked the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova with a sacramental question.
And she added: “Think twice, because all the “outcasts” declared by Washington are only getting stronger, and then the United States bows to them.”
Nevertheless, the main question of the “issue price” for China if it ignores US sanctions and continues to cooperate with Russia remains up in the air.
Let us add that the meticulous American journalists more than once or twice tried literally with pincers to snatch from representatives of the US presidential administration and, it seems, from Joe Biden himself, what kind of punitive measures against China the White House would be ready to take, but the answer was invariably evasive.
When the time comes, you will know everything.
Until then, let's not talk about it.
Secondly, another mystery, like the unanswered question about the “very high price” for Beijing, was the question of what “dozens of allies” who are allegedly ready to bring a class action lawsuit against China together with the United States, in fact, are we talking about.
Yes, many countries of both the West and the East have far from cloudless relations with China.
But at the same time, all of them, without exception, are still trying to find a way to bring trade and economic cooperation with Beijing beyond the brackets of these contradictions.
Whether we are talking about unresolved territorial disputes with the countries of Southeast Asia or about Hong Kong, Tibet, human rights and other things that do not interest Asia, but interest Europe.
A noteworthy statement reflecting this approach was made recently by the new President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who recently received Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Manila.
“China is not just our neighbor, but also a partner and friend.
Bilateral friendship can and should continue to grow stronger.
The issue of the South China Sea is not the main agenda in bilateral relations, it should not limit the development of our cooperation and hinder it,” said Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
But the Philippines is one of the Asian allies of the United States in the Indo-Pacific region.
The most interesting thing in Ned Price's on-duty statements resembling the voice of an answering machine is this.
Most recently, at a meeting of G20 foreign ministers on the Indonesian island of Bali, his chief, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, held a rare meeting in today's harsh times with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
There, in Bali, the Chinese minister did not make excuses and already spoke about the cost of the issue of anti-Chinese policy for Washington itself.
“Many believe that the US is developing an increasingly serious form of Sinophobia.
If such a “threat” continues to be blown up, US policy towards China will reach a dead end,” Wang Yi told Anthony Blinken.
“The American side should stop spreading slander about the political system of our country, stop slandering China's domestic and foreign policy.
The United States should immediately remove increased duties on Chinese products and lift unilateral sanctions against Chinese companies,” the Chinese minister continued.
He also warned the United States against starting a new cold war, appealing to Anthony Blinken: "We must not hide behind human rights and democracy slogans in order to infringe on the interests of the PRC."
And now, as we can see, all these warnings made by Minister Wang Yi gave a zero result.
It went in one ear and out the other.
Or did Anthony Blinken, the Chinese minister in Bali, not want to listen at all?
Be that as it may, after all these explanations by the head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, as if nothing had happened, Ned Price came out and sang the same American song about the main thing.
A song about some "very high price" China will have to pay one day.
And now let's reveal a terrible secret.
All this is a bluff, and there really is no such “high price” for Beijing.
She is not even known in the White House.
Just as there is no mythical list of dozens of countries that are supposedly ready to join in some kind of demonstrative flogging of Beijing.
For now, it exists as an obsession in President Biden's fuzzy mind.
So, if the United States suddenly takes the risk of wrestling alone with China, it could cost them a multibillion-dollar penny (we’ll talk about this separately on occasion).
For America, it will be "very expensive China."
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.