Seeking to consolidate their alliances
The Americans and the Chinese are rallying support
Blinken promised to build an alliance with the European Union against China and Russia.
A.F.B.
Diplomats from 26 countries finally escorted their Canadian colleague to the court in Beijing.
A.F.B.
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Since their feverish meeting in Alaska, the Americans and the Chinese have sought to consolidate their alliances.
Washington is with its European and Asian allies, and Beijing is with Iran and North Korea.
The first meeting between the Chinese and the Americans under President Joe Biden led to a multi-directional deterioration in the relationship between China and the West, especially Europe, which had maintained relative contact with Beijing under the administration of his predecessor, Donald Trump.
"We are heading to a bipolar system and a new cold war between the good guys (democracies and the West) and the bad guys (dictatorships, China, Russia, Iran and North Korea)," says Chinese affairs expert Jean-Pierre Kapestan of the Baptist University in Hong Kong.
And he added, "There is a strong ranks of democratic regimes around Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and human rights in China, and what is new for the United States is that it needs its allies to form a counterweight to China's influence."
In a symbolic sign of this, diplomats from 26 countries finally escorted their Canadian colleague to the court in Beijing, where one of two Canadians who were arrested at the end of 2018 is being tried in closed sessions, days after the arrest of an official in the Chinese Huawei group in Canada.
Beijing is seeking support
By placing the defense of freedoms at the top of his priorities, unlike his predecessor Donald Trump, Joe Biden is in the process of winning his bet in restoring cohesion between democracies in the face of the Chinese challenge, as confirmed by independent political analyst Hua Po.
He points out that the Americans and their allies may have different interests towards China, except that “they are in agreement on the issue of human rights.
This is a symbol of solidarity between the United States and its Western allies. ”
On the other hand, on March 18 in Anchorage, China's top official for diplomatic affairs, Yang Jiechi, blamed the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, arousing the approval of the nationalist circles in China.
"The United States and Western countries do not represent world public opinion," he said at the time.
Since then, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has intensified contacts with countries facing the West, starting with a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who visited southern China on Monday.
The meeting was an opportunity for the two countries to stress that "there is not only one form of democracy."
The minister continued his tour in Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia, where he obtained the support of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud for Chinese policy in Xinjiang in northwest China.
On Saturday in Tehran, Wang Yi signed a 25-year strategic and trade cooperation agreement between the two countries with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Surrounding policy
On the American side, Joe Biden had anticipated the Anchorage meeting, to hold an Internet summit with India, Japan and Australia, within the framework of the informal quadruple "Quad" alliance, which aims to create a counterweight to Chinese influence in the Asia-Pacific region.
Hua Po says that China finds itself facing a "multi-form encirclement policy" implemented by Washington on the strategic, technological and commercial levels.
Faced with this triple threat, the alliance with Russia, Iran and North Korea does not constitute a parallel weight, according to this expert.
As for Anthony Blinken, he prepared for his first meeting with the Chinese, through a tour of Japan and South Korea, China's direct neighbors.
He continued his tour last week in Brussels, where he promised to build an alliance with the European Union against China and Russia.
The Americans, the Europeans, the British and the Canadians simultaneously announced sanctions against a handful of senior Chinese employees who they deemed responsible for the crackdown on Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.
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