在乔治·华盛顿大学的讲话 《本届政府对中华人民共和国的方针》
乔治·华盛顿大学
华盛顿特区
2022年5月26日
布林肯国务卿：谢谢。早上好。
很高兴来到乔治·华盛顿大学。这所高等院校荟萃了来自世界各地的极为出色的学生和学者，师生们在这里研究和辩论我们作为一个国家和星球所面临的最紧迫的挑战。因此，谢谢你们邀请我们来到这里。
我特别要感谢今天到场的亚洲协会（Asia Society）的朋友们，他们全心全意地致力于与亚洲国家和人民建立更密切的联系，努力促进和平、繁荣、自由、平等和可持续发展。感谢你们主办今天的活动，还要感谢你们每天发挥的领导作用——Kevin Rudd、Wendy Cutler、Danny Russel——所有的同事、思想领袖和实干家，和你们在一起总是令人愉快。
我必须感谢罗姆尼参议员出席今天的活动——无论作为一个人还是一位领导者，您都让我十分钦佩。您是一个光明磊落、坚持原则的人，在我们今天要讨论的主题上一直发挥着领导作用。参议员，谢谢您的光临。
我也非常高兴地看到有这么多外交使团成员在座，因为外交是塑造我们共同未来不可或缺的工具。
在过去两年里，我们齐心协力抗击 新冠疫情并为未来的全球卫生紧急情况做好准备，在经历了经济冲击、供应链中断、债务危机及其他困难之后，我们开始重建，同时应对气候变化，重新构想更清洁、更有保障、更经济实惠的能源未来。
这些努力的共同点是一个简单的事实，即任何国家都无法独自应对这些挑战。我们不得不共同面对它们。
因此，我们把外交重新作为美国对外政策的中心，以帮助我们实现美国人民和世界各地人民所寻求的未来——在这个未来世界中，技术被用来增进人民的福祉，而不是压制他们；贸易和商务被用于为劳动者谋福利、增加收入、创造机会；普世人权得到尊重，国家免受胁迫和侵略，人民、思想、商品和资本自由流动；各国都可以开辟自己的道路，同时又能够在共同的事业中有效地合作。
为了建设这样的未来，我们必须捍卫和改革基于规则的国际秩序——这是国际社会在经历了两次世界大战之后共同建立的法律、协议、原则和机构机制体系，以管理国家之间的关系，防止冲突和维护所有人的权利。
其创始文件包括《联合国宪章》和《世界人权宣言》，其中确立了自决、主权及和平解决争端等概念。这些概念不是由西方国家构建的，它们反映了世界各国的共同愿望。
此后的几十年里，尽管面临艰巨的挑战，尽管在我们的理想和我们取得的某些成果之间存在差距，世界各国还是避免了另一场世界大战和核大国之间的武装冲突。我们建立了一个全球化经济，数十亿人因此脱贫。我们在增进人权方面取得了前所未有的成就。
现在，当我们展望未来时，我们不仅要维持使这一进步成为可能的国际秩序，而且要使之现代化，以确保它代表各个地区所有国家——不分大小——的利益、价值观和希望。更重要的是，要使它能够应对我们现在和未来面临的挑战，其中许多挑战是世界在七十年前无法想象的。
但这种结果的实现并无保证——因为这一国际秩序的基础正面临严峻而持续的挑战。
俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京造成了明确无误的、迫在眉睫的威胁。三个月前，他对乌克兰发动了攻击，也重创了载入《联合国宪章》、保护所有国家不被占领或胁迫的主权和领土完整原则。因此，众多国家联合起来，反对这场侵略战争——因为它们认识到这是对各国和平与安全基础的直接侵犯。
在美国和世界各地众多国家史无前例的援助下，乌克兰正在英勇地捍卫其人民和独立。虽然战争还没有结束，但普京总统却未能实现他的任何一个战略目标。他不仅没有能够剥夺乌克兰的独立，反而加强了它。他不仅没有能够分裂北约，反而促成了它的团结。他不仅没有能够展示俄罗斯的实力，反而削弱了它。他不仅没有能够削弱国际秩序，反而让国家团结起来捍卫它。
尽管普京总统发动的战争还在继续，我们仍将聚焦于对国际秩序的最严峻的长期挑战——这就是中华人民共和国带来的挑战。
中国是唯一不仅具有重塑国际秩序的意图——其日益增强的经济、外交、军事和技术力量又使之具备这样做的能力的国家。北京的愿景将使我们远离过去 75 年来保障世界持续进步的普世价值观。
同时，中国是全球经济不可或缺的一部分，也是我们应对从气候到新冠疫情等各种挑战的能力的一部分。简言之，在可以预见的未来，美国和中国都不得不与对方打交道。
因此，这是我们当今世界上最复杂和最重要的关系之一。
过去一年里，拜登政府制定并实施了一项综合战略，以利用我们的国家实力以及我们无与伦比的盟友和合作伙伴网络来实现我们所寻求的未来。
我们不是在寻求冲突或新的冷战。相反，我们决心避免这两者。
我们不寻求阻止中国作为大国发挥作用，也不寻求阻止中国——或任何其他国家——发展经济或促进本国人民的利益。
但我们将捍卫和加强用以维护和平与安全、保护个人和主权国家的权利并使包括美国和中国在内的所有国家能够共存与合作的国际法、协议、原则和机构机制。
然而，今天的中国与 50 年前的中国截然不同，当时尼克松总统打破了数十年的紧张关系，成为第一位访问该国的美国总统。
当时的中国陷于孤立，在大范围的贫困和饥饿中挣扎。
现在，中国是一个具有巨大影响力、雄心勃勃的全球大国。它是第二大经济体，拥有世界一流的城市和公共交通网络。它拥有一批世界最大的科技公司，并寻求主导未来的技术和产业。它迅速实现了军队现代化，并打算使之成为一支具有全球投放能力的顶级战斗力量。它还宣示了在印太地区建立势力范围并成为世界领先大国的雄心。
中国的巨大变革源于中国人民的才华、智慧和辛勤劳动，也受益于国际秩序提供的稳定和机遇。可以说，地球上没有哪个国家比中国从中受益更多。
但与其利用其权力来加强和振兴促成其成功的法律、协议、原则和机构机制，以便其他国家也能从中受益，北京正在破坏它们。在习主席的领导下，执政的中国共产党在国内变得更加具有压制性，在国外变得更加咄咄逼人。
我们看到北京如何完善中国境内的大规模监控体系并将该技术出口到 80 多个国家，如何在南中国海推进非法海洋主张，破坏和平与安全、航行自由和商业；如何规避或违反贸易规则，伤害美国以及世界各地的工人和企业；以及如何声称支持主权和领土完整，同时与公然违反这些原则的政府站在一起。
在俄罗斯显然在为入侵乌克兰进行部署之时，习主席和普京总统宣布，他们两国之间的友谊——原话是——“上不封顶”。就在本周，在拜登总统访问日本之际，中国和俄罗斯在该地区共同进行了战略轰炸机巡逻。
北京为普京总统旨在剥夺乌克兰主权和在欧洲建立势力范围的战争所做的辩护应该对我们所有印太国家敲响警钟。
由于这些原因以及其他原因，世界面临一个充满变数的时刻。在这样的时候，外交是至关重要的。通过外交，我们明确表达深切的关切，更好地理解彼此的观点，并且避免对彼此的意图产生误解。我们随时准备就各种问题加强与北京的直接沟通。我们希望双方能够做到这一点。
但我们不能指望北京改弦更张。因此，我们将塑造北京所处的战略环境，以推进我们建设一个开放和包容的国际体系的愿景。
拜登总统认为，未来十年将是决定性的十年。我们在国内和与世界上其他国家共同采取的行动将决定我们对未来的共同愿景能否实现。
为了在这个决定性的十年取得成功，拜登政府的战略可以用三个词概括：“投资、协同、竞争”。
我们将投资于我们在国内的实力基础——我们的竞争力、创新和民主。
我们将与我们的盟友和合作伙伴网络协同，追求共同的目标，促进共同的事业。
基于这两项关键举措，我们将与中国竞争，以捍卫我们的利益，推进我们对未来的愿景。
我们充满信心地迎接这一挑战。我们的国家拥有许多优势。我们有和平的邻国、多元且不断增长的人口、丰富的资源、世界储备货币、地球上最强大的军队、以及生机勃勃的创新和创业文化，例如我们生产了多种有效的疫苗，目前被用于保护世界各地的人民，使之免受新冠疫情的伤害。
我们还拥有处于最佳状态的开放社会，能够吸引人才和投资，并具有经过时间考验的重塑能力，它植根于我们的民主体制，使我们能够应对我们面临的任何挑战。
首先谈一下投资于我们的实力。
第二次世界大战后，当我们和我们的合作伙伴建立基于规则的秩序时，我们的联邦政府也在对科学研究、教育、基础设施和劳动力进行战略投资，创造了千百万的中产阶层就业机会以及数十年的繁荣和技术领先。但我们认为这些基础的存在是必然的，因此，现在是重新审视的时候了。
拜登政府正在对我们的国家实力的核心来源进行意义深远的投资——从一项产业现代化战略开始，以维持和扩大我们的经济和技术影响力，使我们的经济和供应链更具复原力，并加强我们的竞争优势。
去年，拜登总统签署了美国历史上最大的基础设施投资法案，以推进我们的高速公路、港口、机场、铁路和桥梁现代化，更快地将货物送往市场，提高我们的生产力，并将高速互联网扩展到全国每一个角落，为美国更多地区吸引更多企业，创造更多就业机会。
我们正在教育和劳动者培训领域进行战略投资，以使美国的劳动者——全世界最优秀的劳动者——能够设计、构建及操作未来的技术。
由于我们的产业战略以技术为核心，我们希望投资于研究、开发以及先进的生产制造。60年前，我们的政府用于研究的开支在我们的经济中的占比是现在的两倍多——这些投资转而催化了私营部门的创新。我们就是这样赢得了太空竞赛、发明了半导体并构建了因特网。我们的研发投入在国内生产总值中的占比曾高居世界首位，而现在排名第九。与此同时，中国已从第八位上升到第二位。
在国会两党的支持下，我们将扭转这些趋势并对研究和创新进行历史性投资，其中包括人工智能、生物技术和量子计算等领域。这些都是北京决心要引领的领域——但鉴于美国的种种优势，我们才是竞争中的引领者，不仅是在新技术开发方面，在影响其在世界各地的使用方式上也是如此，从而使它们植根于民主价值观，而不是专制价值观。
领导层——罗姆尼参议员及其他人——众议院和参议院已通过法案支持这项议程，其中包括数十亿美元用于在国内制造半导体并增强其他关键的供应链。现在，我们需要国会将这项法案送交总统签署。
我们能够完成这项工作，而且时不我待——供应链现在正在迁移，如果我们不将它们吸引到美国，它们将落户于其他地方。正如拜登总统所言，中国共产党正在游说反对这项立法，因为要增强我们的全球地位和影响力，实现我们的国内振兴是最佳方式。这些投资不仅将使美国更加强大，还将使我们成为一个更强大的伙伴和盟友。
美国最强大的一个特点——甚至是魔幻般的特点——是我们长期以来一直是全球各地才华横溢、奋发努力的人才的目的地。其中包括来自中国的数百万名学生，他们丰富了我们的社区，同美国人建立起毕生的纽带。去年，尽管存在疫情，我们仍在短短四个月里就为中国学生签发了超过10万份签证——签发率创历史新高。我们为他们选择来美国留学感到非常高兴——他们的到来令我们感到幸运。
还让我们感到幸运的是，全球最杰出的人才不仅在这里学习而且留在这里——就像在美国研读科技博士学位的80%以上的中国学生近年来一直做出的选择。他们帮助驱动了在我们国家的创新，让我们所有人都从中获益。我们可以在不关闭国门的情况下对国家安全保持警惕。
我们的历史还让我们懂得，当我们在管理同另外一个政府的具有挑战性的关系时，来自该国或有该国血统的人可能会因此感到他们不属于这里——或者他们是我们的对手。事实绝非如此。华裔美国人为我们的国家做出了宝贵的贡献，而且世世代代一直都在这样做。不公正地对待华裔违背了我们作为一个国家所代表的一切——不论是在这里探访或居住的中国国民，还是华裔美国人，亦或是在这个国家享有与其他任何人等同权利的任何其他亚裔美国人。在一个由一代代移民为实现人人都享有机会的承诺而建设的国家里，种族主义和仇恨绝无立足之地。
我们同中国共产党和中国政府有重大分歧。但这些分歧存在于政府和制度之间——不存在于人民之间。美国人民对中国人民怀有极大的尊重。我们尊重他们的成就、他们的历史和他们的文化。我们深切珍视连接我们的家庭和友谊的纽带。而且我们真诚地希望我们的政府能就事关他们的生活、事关美国人的生活乃至事关全世界人民生活的各项事务共同努力。
我们在这个决定性的十年还将依赖于国家实力的另外一个核心源泉：我们的民主。
一百年前，如果被问到一个国家的财富由什么组成，我们可能会列举我们广袤的土地、我们众多的人口、我们的军事实力，或是我们富饶的自然资源。幸运的是，我们在所有这些特征方面依然富有。但比以往都更重要的是，在21世纪，一个国家的真正财富在于我们的人民——我们的人力资源——以及我们释放他们的全部潜能的能力。
我们通过我们的民主制度来做到这一点。我们展开辩论、争论、提出异议并相互质疑，包括与我们的民选领导人。我们公开地应对我们的不足；我们不会假装它们并不存在，或是将它们扫到地毯下面。尽管有时进展可能缓慢得令人感到痛苦，而且可能是艰难的、险恶的，但总体而言，我们持续地向一个来自各种背景的人们都能够在团结、激励并提升我们的国家价值观的指引下繁荣发展的社会迈进。
我们并不完美。但我们尽最大努力，始终力争成为——引用我国宪法的语句——一个更完美的联邦。而且我们的民主的宗旨就是将此付诸实现。
这就是美国模式和美国人民所能提供的，它是我们在这场竞赛中最具实力的资产。
然而，北京认为它的模式更好——认为一个由政党领导的集权体制更有效力、较少混乱，而且最终比民主更优越。我们不寻求改变中国的政治体制。我们的任务是再次证明民主能够应对紧迫的挑战，创造机会，并增进人类尊严；以及未来属于那些相信自由的人们，所有国家都将不受胁迫地自由地规划它们自己的道路。
我们的战略的第二部分是同我们的盟友和合作伙伴协同一致，以推动我们对未来的共同愿景。
拜登政府从就职第一天起，就努力地为美国无以伦比的联盟及伙伴关系网络注入活力，并重新参与国际机构。我们正在鼓励伙伴方相互合作，并通过区域性和全球性组织合作。而且我们正在建立起新的同盟，服务于我们的人民，并迎接未来世纪的考验。
在印太地区尤为如此，我们在该地区的各项关系，其中包括我们的条约联盟，都属于我们在全世界最牢固的关系。
美国与整个地区的国家和人民拥有共同的愿景——一个自由与开放的印太地区，其各项规则以透明的方式制定并以公平的方式实行；各国都能自由地做出自己的主权决定；商品、创意和人员在整个陆地、天空、网络空间和开放海域上自由地流通；而且在国家治理上顺应民意。
拜登总统在就职以后于本周首次访问该地区期间强调了这些优先要务，他重申了我们同韩国及日本的至关重要的安全联盟，并深化了我们同这两个国家的经济和技术合作。
他启动了印太经济繁荣框架（Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity），这是该地区的第一个这样的行动计划。他发表讲话指出，这将“有助于我们所有国家的经济更快速和更公平地发展”。我们所说的印太经济框架通过应对数字经济、供应链、清洁能源、基础设施和腐败等最新和紧迫问题重振美国的经济领导力，但也为适应21世纪做出调整。包括印度在内的12个国家已经加入其中。印太经济框架成员国总计占全球经济的三分之一以上。
总统还出席了四方（Quad）国家领导人峰会——澳大利亚、日本、印度和美国。在拜登总统就职以前，四方伙伴关系从未举行过领导人峰会。自从他于去年召集首次领导人会议以来，四方峰会已举行了四次，并已成为一个首要的区域性团队。它于本周启动了一个新的印太海域意识伙伴关系（Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness），以使我们在整个地区的合作伙伴都能更好地监测他们沿岸的水域，以解决非法捕鱼问题，并保护他们的海事权利和他们的主权。
我们正在重振我们同东盟的伙伴关系，并于本月早些时候主持了美国-东盟峰会，以着手共同解决公共卫生和气候危机等迫在眉睫的问题。本周，七个东盟国家已成为印太经济框架的创始成员。而且我们正在我们的印太及欧洲伙伴之间构筑桥梁，其中包括邀请亚洲盟国下个月出席在马德里举行的北约峰会。
我们正在印太地区增进和平与稳定——例如，通过被称为“AUKUS”的澳大利亚、英国和美国之间的新的安全伙伴关系。
而且我们正在帮助本地区及全世界各国战胜新冠疫情。迄今为止，美国已为全球疫情应对行动提供了近200亿美元。这其中包括不附加任何政治条件地捐助超过5.4亿剂安全有效的疫苗——并非出售——逐步实现我们为全世界捐助12亿剂疫苗的目标。我们还在同一个由19国组成的团体就一项全球行动计划展开协作，以确保民众接种疫苗。
所有这些外交努力的成果是，我们与整个印太地区的合作伙伴更加保持一致，而且我们正在以一种更加协调的方式向我们的共同目标迈进。
我们还深化了我们同整个大西洋地区的同盟。我们去年启动了美国-欧盟贸易和技术委员会（U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council），引领合计占全球国内生产总值近50%的实力。上周，我同雷蒙多部长、戴大使以及我们欧洲委员会的对等官员出席了第二次会议，共同努力制定新的技术标准、协作进行投资审查和出口管制、增强供应链、发展绿色技术并在发展中国家改善粮食安全和数字基础设施。
与此同时，我们和我们的欧洲伙伴搁置了长达17年的有关飞机的诉讼；现在，我们不再互相争执，而是努力确保为我们在该部门的公司企业和员工提供一个平等的竞争环境。
同样，我们和欧盟及其他方面共同努力解决一项有关钢材和铝材进口的纠纷，而且现在正汇集在一个共同愿景下，以制定更高的环境标准，并保护我们的员工和产业，使之不因北京为谋求一己之利蓄意扭曲市场而受到损害。
我们正在同欧盟进行伙伴合作，以保护我们公民的隐私，同时增强一个依赖于巨大的数据流的共同的数字经济。
我们同二十国集团（G20）达成了一项具有里程碑意义的有关全球最低税率的协议，以制止逐底竞争，确保大型企业缴纳它们应付的份额，并让各国更有理由投资于它们的人民。迄今为止已有130多个国家签署了这项协议。
我们和我们的七国集团（G7）伙伴正在寻求一种相互协调的、高标准的、透明的方式，以满足发展中国家巨大的基础设施需求。
我们主持召开了战胜新冠疫情及重振全世界民主的全球峰会，并重新加入了联合国人权理事会和世界卫生组织。
而且在一个面临巨大考验的时刻，我们和我们的盟友为北约组织注入活力，该组织现在比以往任何时候都更加强大。
所有这些行动都致力于捍卫并在必要时改革应当让所有国家受益的基于规则的秩序。我们希望引领一场在技术、气候、基础设施、全球卫生和包容性经济增长方面力争上游的竞赛。而且我们希望增强一种体制，让其中尽可能多的国家都能共同努力，有效合作、和平地解决分歧，并作为主权平等的国家谱写各自的未来。
我们的外交以伙伴关系以及尊重相互的利益为基础。我们不期待每个国家都对中国做出和我们完全相同的评估。我们知道很多国家——包括美国在内——都同中国有着它们希望保持的至关重要的经济纽带或民间联系。这并不是强迫各国做出选择，而是帮助它们获得选择能力——例如，使它们不再被迫做出唯一选择，即选择一种不透明的投资，致使其国家背负债务、助长腐败、破坏环境、不能在当地创造就业或实现发展乃至无法行使国家主权。我们已经直接了解到这类交易可能留下的令买家懊悔的情况。
我们每走一步都同我们的合作伙伴磋商，听取他们的意见，将他们的关切谨记在心，并制定应对他们特有的挑战和优先要务的解决方案。
一个日渐趋同的共识是，需要以更现实的态度对待与北京的关系。我们许多合作伙伴已经从痛苦的经历中知道，当北京不喜欢他们的选择时会如何大力施压。例如去年春季，北京禁止中国学生和游客前往澳大利亚，并且对澳大利亚大麦出口课收80%的关税，就是因为澳大利亚政府呼吁对新冠起源进行独立调查。再如去年11月，中国海警局的舰艇在南中国海用水炮阻止一艘菲律宾海军舰船补给。这类行动提醒世界，北京会如何对它所认为的对立行为进行报复。
我们还与盟国和伙伴在另一个领域协同一致：人权。
美国与世界各地的国家和人民站在一起，反对在新疆地区发生的种族灭绝和反人类罪行。那里有一百多万人因为他们的民族和宗教身份而被关入拘留营。
我们对西藏持共同立场，当局继续在那里开展残酷压制藏族人和他们的文化、语言和宗教传统的运动。在香港，中国共产党以国家安全为借口，实施严厉的反民主措施。
出于某种原因，北京坚持认为这些做法属于内政，他国无权提及。这不对。它在新疆和西藏对待少数民族和宗教少数群体的做法以及其他许多行动，违背了北京经常引述的《联合国宪章》的核心原则和所有国家都应遵守的《世界人权宣言》。
北京对香港自由的压制违反它的移交承诺，这些承诺写入了保存在联合国的条约。
我们将继续提出这些问题并呼吁作出改变——不是要反对中国，而是要维护和平、安全和人的尊严。
由此联系到我们战略中的第三点。由于国内投资增加和与盟国和伙伴更加协同一致，我们在重要的竞争领域中处于能够超越中国的有利位置。
例如，北京想使中国成为全球创新和制造中心，以增加其他国家对其的技术依赖性，而后利用这种依赖性强加它的外交政策取向。北京正在竭尽全力赢得这场竞赛——例如，利用我们经济的开放性去刺探，去进行网上侵入，去窃取技术和知识，从而促进它的军事创新和加强国家监控力。
因此，在我们确保美国和我们的盟国及伙伴推出下一波发明创新时，我们也将保护自己的创造不被盗用，我们的安全不受威胁。
我们在把我们的工具变得更锐利，以保护我们的技术竞争力，包括采用新的更有力的出口管制，确保我们的关键性创新不会落入行为不端者之手；加强保护学术研究，创造开放、安全和支持科学的环境；增强网络防御；加强敏感数据的安全；并且锐化投资筛选措施，保护公司和国家，防范北京获得进入敏感技术、数据或关键基础设施的渠道，伤害我们的供应链，或主宰重要的战略产业。
我们相信——我们相信商界也理解——进入中国市场绝不能以牺牲我们的核心价值观或长期的竞争和技术优势为代价。我们要靠商企追求负责任的发展，冷静地评估风险，并且与我们共同努力，不仅保护而且加强我们的国家安全。
太长时间以来，中国对我们的市场享有比我们的公司在中国大得多的市场准入。例如，美国人如果想读中国的China Daily或者使用WeChat微信交流，他们可以自由地这样做，但是，《纽约时报》（New York Times）和推特（Twitter）对中国人民是被禁止的——除非是那些为政府工作的人，他们利用这些平台散布宣传和虚假信息。在中国运作的美国公司被系统化强迫要求提供技术转让，而在美国的中国公司受到我们的法治保护。中国电影制片人可以自由地向美国影院业主推销他们的影片，美国政府不予任何审查，但是，北京对可以进入中国市场的外国影片有严格的数量限制——那些被允许进入的受到高压政治审查。在美国的中国商企可毫无顾忌地利用我们公正的司法系统保护他们的权利——实际上，他们经常到法庭上向美国政府伸张索赔。外国公司在中国不是这样。
这种不互惠是不可接受的，它也是不可持续的。
也可以看看在钢材市场发生的情况。北京指示中国公司大规模超量投资，结果使廉价钢材充斥全球市场。与美国公司和其他市场导向的公司不同，中国公司不需要盈利——当资金不足时，他们只需让国有银行再注入一笔信贷。此外，他们为控制污染或保护工人权利做得很少，从而也得以保持低成本。其结果是，中国现在占全球钢产量一半以上，美国公司——以及印度、墨西哥、印度尼西亚、欧洲以及其他地方的工厂被挤出市场。
在太阳能板和电动车电池行业我们也见到同样的模式——这些是21世纪经济的关键行业，我们不能变得完全依靠中国。
这类经济操纵使美国工人损失了数百万份工作，也对全球各地国家的工人和企业造成伤害。我们将反制扭曲市场的政策和做法，例如补贴和市场准入障碍，这些是中国政府多年来惯用的方法，以此获得竞争优势。我们将把生产迁回或从其他国家获取敏感产业原料，如制药原料和关键矿物，从而增强供应链的安全性和复原力，使我们在这些方面不仅仅依赖任何一个供应商。我们将与其他国家共同反对经济胁迫和恫吓。我们将努力确保美国公司不从事助长践踏人权——包括强迫劳动——或从中获利的商业活动。
总之，我们将运用我们手中的一切工具为美国工人和产业而战——我们知道我们的合作伙伴也会为他们的工人而战。
美国不想切断中国经济同我们或同全球经济的联系——尽管北京，无论言辞如何，是在力图进行非对称脱钩，一方面谋求减少中国对世界的依赖，另一方面却让世界更加依赖中国。对我们来说，我们希望进行贸易和投资——只要做到公平并且不危害我们的国家安全。中国拥有强大的经济资源，包括高素质的劳动力。我们有信心，我们的劳动力，我们的公司能够成功地在公平的环境中竞争——而且我们欢迎这种竞争。
因此，在我们以负责任的方式抵制不公平的技术和经济行为的同时，在与我们的利益和价值观一致的前提下，我们将努力保持美国和中国之间的经济纽带和民间交往。北京也许不愿意改变它的行为。但是，如果它采取具体行动消除我们和许多其他国家提出的担忧，我们将予以积极回应。
竞争不必导致冲突。我们不谋求冲突。我们将努力避免冲突。但是面对任何威胁，我们将捍卫我们的利益。
为此，拜登总统指示国防部将中国列为步调挑战（pacing challenge），并确保我军保持领先。我们将寻求通过我们称之为“一体化威慑”的新方针——包括盟国和合作伙伴——来维护和平；在常规、核、空间和信息各个领域努力；并且从我们相互加强的经济、技术和外交领域汲取更大力量。
本届政府正在将我们的军事投资从针对20世纪冲突的平台转向针对更远程、更难发现和更易移动的非对称系统。我们正在确立指导我国军事行动的新概念。我们正在将军事态势和全球足迹多样化，并且巩固我们的网络、关键的民用基础设施，以及太空基能力。我们将帮助盟国和地区伙伴增进它们自身的非对称能力。
我们将继续反对北京在南中国海和东中国海咄咄逼人的、非法的活动。将近六年前，国际法庭裁决北京在南中国海的主权要求不具国际法基础。我们将支持该地区沿海国家维护他们的海权。我们将与盟国和合作伙伴共同努力维护给这个地区带来数十年繁荣的航行和飞越自由。我们将继续在国际法允许的一切地方飞行和航行。
关于台湾：我们的方针在过去几十年和历届政府中都是一致的。正如总统所说，我们的政策没有改变。美国仍然坚定地奉行“一个中国”的政策，该政策以《台湾关系法》、三个联合公报和六项保证为指导。我们反对任何一方单方面改变现状；我们不支持台湾独立；我们期待两岸的分歧以和平方式得到解决。
台海地区的和平与稳定依然符合我们的持久利益。我们将继续履行我们在《台湾关系法》下的承诺，协助台湾保持足够的自卫能力——正如《台湾关系法》所述，并保持我们抵制任何诉诸武力或可能危及台湾安全或社会或经济体制的其他形式的胁迫的能力。台湾是一个充满活力的民主体和在该地区领先的经济体，我们与之保持着牢固的非官方关系。我们将继续扩大与台湾在许多共同利益和价值观上的合作，支持台湾以实质性方式参与国际社会，并深化我们的经济联系，这种做法符合我们的一个中国政策。
我们的政策没有改变，变化来自北京日益增加的胁迫——例如试图切断台湾与世界各国的关系，阻止其参与国际组织。北京的言辞和活动日益具有挑衅性，例如几乎每天都出动中国人民解放军的飞机在台湾附近飞行。这些言行严重破坏稳定，造成误判风险，威胁到台湾海峡的和平与稳定。正如我们从总统与印太地区盟友和伙伴的讨论中看到的那样，维护海峡两岸的和平与稳定不仅符合美国的利益，也是一个受到国际关注的问题，对区域和全球安全与繁荣至关重要。
拜登总统总是说，唯一比故意冲突更糟糕的冲突是无意的冲突。我们将负责任地管理这种关系，以防止这种情况发生。我们已将与北京的危机沟通和降低风险措施列为优先事项。在这个问题上——以及其他所有问题上——我们仍然致力于在激烈竞争的同时开展密集的外交。
即使在我们投资、协同和竞争的同时，我们也会在利益一致的领域与北京合作。为了造福于我们的人民和世界，我们不能让我们的分歧阻止我们在需要共同努力的优先事项上向前推进。
这要从气候开始。中国和美国多年来在气候危机上陷入僵局，使世界也陷入僵局——但也曾在一些时期取得进展，并激励世界行动起来。2013年中美启动的气候外交渠道释放了产生《巴黎协定》的全球动力。去年，在第26届联合国气候变化大会（COP26）上，美国和中国发表了格拉斯哥联合声明——誓言共同努力解决从甲烷到煤炭的排放问题——鼓舞了世界的希望。
气候与意识形态无关，但与数学相关。没有中国发挥领导作用，就根本无法解决气候变化问题，因为这个国家的排放量占全球排放量的 28%。国际能源署已经明确表示，如果中国坚持目前的计划，直到 2030 年才达到排放峰值，那么世界其他地区必须至迟在 2035 年达到零排放，而这是根本不可能的。
今天，大约 20 个国家构成 80% 的排放——中国第一，美国第二。除非我们都做得更多、更快，否则经济和人力代价将是灾难性的。此外，在清洁能源和气候政策方面的竞争可以产生有益于各方的结果。
美国和中国共同取得的进展——包括通过《格拉斯哥宣言》设立的工作组所取得的进展——对于我们成功避免这场危机的最坏后果至关重要。我敦促中国与我们一起加快这些共同努力的步伐。
同样，在新冠疫情中，我们的命运息息相关。在中国遭受最新一波疫情时，我们因中国人民的灾难而悲伤。我们自己也经历了新冠疫情造成的深重苦难，因此，我们坚信所有国家必须共同努力，为全世界提供疫苗——不是为了换取好处或政治上的让步，而是出于一个简单的原因，即没有全人类的安全就不会有任何国家的安全。所有国家都必须透明地共享数据和样本——并为专家提供获取便利——以应对新变种以及新出现和重新出现的病原体，在我们与当前疫情作斗争的同时防止下一场大规模流行病。
关于不扩散和军备控制：遵守减少大规模杀伤性武器扩散的规则、规范和条约符合我们所有各方的利益。中国和美国必须继续合作，并与其他国家一起应对伊朗和朝鲜的核计划。我们仍然准备与北京直接讨论我们各自作为核大国的责任。
为了打击非法麻醉品，特别是去年造成超过 10 万美国人死亡的芬太尼等合成阿片类药物，我们希望与中国合作，阻止国际贩毒组织获得前体化学品，其中许多此类化学品的源头在中国。
由于全球粮食危机威胁着世界各地的人民，我们期待中国——一个在农业领域取得巨大成就的国家——参与全球应对行动。上周，美国在联合国召集了外长会议，以加强全球粮食安全。我们向中国发出了邀请，我们将继续这样做。
随着世界经济从疫情造成的破坏中复苏，美国和中国之间在全球宏观经济上的协调是关键所在——包括通过20国集团、国际货币基金组织和其他渠道，当然，还有双边行动。这是世界上最大的两个经济体应负的责任。
总之，当我们能够与中国进行建设性接触时，我们将这样做——不是作为对我们或其他任何人的恩惠，也绝不会以背离我们的原则为代价，而是因为共同努力战胜重大挑战是世界对大国的期望，还因为这样做直接符合我们的利益。任何国家都不应因为相互之间的分歧而在危及人类生存的跨国问题上阻止进展。
中华人民共和国带来的挑战的规模和范围将对美国外交构成前所未有的考验。作为我提出的现代化议程的一部分，我决心为国务院和我们的外交官提供必需的工具来正面应对这一挑战。这包括成立一个“中国组”（China House）——一个由国务院各部门共同组建的综合团队——跨越不同问题和地区来协调和实施我们的政策，在必要时与国会合作。在这里，我必须提到我们在北京大使馆和中国各地领事馆的优秀团队。在尼克·伯恩斯大使领导下，他们每天都在出色地工作——最近几周，许多人一直在严格的新冠疫情封隔措施下完成他们的工作。尽管存在这些极端困难的条件，他们仍然在坚守。我们为拥有这个非凡的团队而心存感激。
我从未如此确信美国外交的力量和目的，或者如此确信我们有能力应对这个决定性十年的挑战。对于美国人民，让我们重新承诺投资于我们的核心优势：我们的人民、我们的民主和我们的创新精神。正如拜登总统多次指出，做空美国从来都不是一项好赌注。但是，让我们对自己下注，赢得未来的竞争。
对于致力于建设一个开放、安全和繁荣未来的世界各国，让我们为了共同的事业而努力，维护使我们得以共同进步的原则，捍卫每一个国家缔造自己的未来的权利。对于中国人民，我们将充满信心地去竞争；我们将尽可能地合作；我们将进行必要的竞赛。我们不寻求冲突。
我们两个伟大的国家没有理由不能和平共处，共同分享和促进人类进步。这就是我今天讲话的要点所在：推动人类进步，为我们的子孙后代留下一个更和平、更繁荣、更自由的世界。
多谢各位听我演讲。（掌声）
The Administration's Approach to the People's Republic of China
SPEECH
ANTONY J. BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE
THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
WASHINGTON, D.C.
MAY 26, 2022
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you. Good morning.
It's a real pleasure to be here at The George Washington University. This is an institution that draws outstanding students and scholars from around the world and where the most urgent challenges that we face as a country and a planet are studied and debated. So thank you for having us here today.
And I especially want to thank our friends at the Asia Society, dedicated to forging closer ties with the countries and people of Asia to try to enhance peace, prosperity, freedom, equality, sustainability. Thank you for hosting us today, but thank you for your leadership every day. Kevin Rudd, Wendy Cutler, Danny Russel – all colleagues, all thought leaders, but also doers, and it’s always wonderful to be with you.
And I have to say I am really grateful, Senator Romney, for your presence here today – a man, a leader, that I greatly admire, a person of tremendous principle, who has been leading on the subject that we’re going to talk about today. Senator, thank you for your presence.
And I’m also delighted to see so many members of the diplomatic corps because diplomacy is the indispensable tool for shaping our shared future.
In the past two years we’ve come together to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare for future global health emergencies, rebuild from economic shocks, from supply-chain disruptions to debt crises, and take on climate change, and reimagine an energy future that’s cleaner, more secure, and more affordable.
The common denominator across these efforts is the simple fact that none of us can meet these challenges alone. We have to face them together.
That’s why we’ve put diplomacy back at the center of American foreign policy, to help us realize the future that Americans and people around the world seek – one where technology is used to lift people up, not suppress them; where trade and commerce support workers, raise incomes, create opportunity; where universal human rights are respected; countries are secure from coercion and aggression, and people, ideas, goods, and capital move freely; and where nations can both forge their own paths and work together effectively in common cause.
To build that future, we must defend and reform the rules-based international order – the system of laws, agreements, principles, and institutions that the world came together to build after two world wars to manage relations between states, to prevent conflict, to uphold the rights of all people.
Its founding documents include the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which enshrined concepts like self-determination, sovereignty, the peaceful settlement of disputes. These are not Western constructs. They are reflections of the world’s shared aspirations.
In the decades since, despite daunting challenges and despite the gap between our ideals and some of the results we’ve achieved, the countries of the world have avoided another world war and armed conflict between nuclear powers. We’ve built a global economy that lifted billions of people out of poverty. We’ve advanced human rights as never before.
Now, as we look to the future, we want not just to sustain the international order that made so much of that progress possible, but to modernize it, to make sure that it represents the interests, the values, the hopes of all nations, big and small, from every region; and furthermore, that it can meet the challenges that we face now and will face in the future, many of which are beyond what the world could have imagined seven decades ago.
But that outcome is not guaranteed because the foundations of the international order are under serious and sustained challenge.
Russian President Vladimir Putin poses a clear and present threat. In attacking Ukraine three months ago, he also attacked the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity, enshrined in the UN Charter, to protect all countries from being conquered or coerced. That's why so many countries have united to oppose this aggression because they see it as a direct assault on the foundation of their own peace and security.
Ukraine is fighting valiantly to defend its people and its independence with unprecedented assistance from the United States and countries around the world. And while the war is not over, President Putin has failed to achieve a single one of his strategic aims. Instead of erasing Ukraine’s independence, he strengthened it. Instead of dividing NATO, he’s united it. Instead of asserting Russia’s strength, he’s undermined it. And instead of weakening the international order, he has brought countries together to defend it.
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.
China is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it. Beijing's vision would move us away from the universal values that have sustained so much of the world's progress over the past 75 years.
China is also integral to the global economy and to our ability to solve challenges from climate to COVID. Put simply, the United States and China have to deal with each other for the foreseeable future.
That's why this is one of the most complex and consequential relationships of any that we have in the world today.
Over the last year, the Biden administration has developed and implemented a comprehensive strategy to harness our national strengths and our unmatched network of allies and partners to realize the future that we seek.
We are not looking for conflict or a new Cold War. To the contrary, we’re determined to avoid both.
We don't seek to block China from its role as a major power, nor to stop China – or any other country, for that matter – from growing their economy or advancing the interests of their people.
But we will defend and strengthen the international law, agreements, principles, and institutions that maintain peace and security, protect the rights of individuals and sovereign nations, and make it possible for all countries – including the United States and China – to coexist and cooperate.
Now, the China of today is very different from the China of 50 years ago, when President Nixon broke decades of strained relations to become the first U.S. president to visit the country.
Then, China was isolated and struggling with widespread poverty and hunger.
Now, China is a global power with extraordinary reach, influence, and ambition. It’s the second largest economy, with world-class cities and public transportation networks. It’s home to some of the world’s largest tech companies and it seeks to dominate the technologies and industries of the future. It’s rapidly modernized its military and intends to become a top tier fighting force with global reach. And it has announced its ambition to create a sphere of influence in the Indo-Pacific and to become the world’s leading power.
China’s transformation is due to the talent, the ingenuity, the hard work of the Chinese people. It was also made possible by the stability and opportunity that the international order provides. Arguably, no country on Earth has benefited more from that than China.
But rather than using its power to reinforce and revitalize the laws, the agreements, the principles, the institutions that enabled its success so that other countries can benefit from them, too, Beijing is undermining them. Under President Xi, the ruling Chinese Communist Party has become more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad.
We see that in how Beijing has perfected mass surveillance within China and exported that technology to more than 80 countries; how its advancing unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea, undermining peace and security, freedom of navigation, and commerce; how it’s circumventing or breaking trade rules, harming workers and companies in the United States but also around the world; and how it purports to champion sovereignty and territorial integrity while standing with governments that brazenly violate them.
Even while Russia was clearly mobilizing to invade Ukraine, President Xi and President Putin declared that the friendship between their countries was – and I quote – “without limits.” Just this week, as President Biden was visiting Japan, China and Russia conducted a strategic bomber patrol together in the region.
Beijing’s defense of President Putin’s war to erase Ukraine’s sovereignty and secure a sphere of influence in Europe should raise alarm bells for all of us who call the Indo-Pacific region home.
For these reasons and more, this is a charged moment for the world. And at times like these, diplomacy is vital. It’s how we make clear our profound concerns, better understand each other’s perspective, and have no doubt about each other’s intentions. We stand ready to increase our direct communication with Beijing across a full range of issues. And we hope that that can happen.
But 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.
President Biden believes this decade will be decisive. The actions that we take at home and with countries worldwide will determine whether our shared vision of the future will be realized.
To succeed in this decisive decade, the Biden administration’s strategy can be summed up in three words – “invest, align, compete.”
We will invest in the foundations of our strength here at home – our competitiveness, our innovation, our democracy.
We will align our efforts with our network of allies and partners, acting with common purpose and in common cause.
And harnessing these two key assets, we’ll compete with China to defend our interests and build our vision for the future.
We take on this challenge with confidence. Our country is endowed with many strengths. We have peaceful neighbors, a diverse and growing population, abundant resources, the world’s reserve currency, the most powerful military on Earth, and a thriving culture of innovation and entrepreneurship that, for example, produced multiple effective vaccines now protecting people worldwide from COVID-19.
And our open society, at its best, attracts flows of talent and investment and has a time-tested capacity for reinvention, rooted in our democracy, empowering us to meet whatever challenges we face.
First, on investing in our strength.
After the Second World War, as we and our partners were building the rules-based order, our federal government was also making strategic investments in scientific research, education, infrastructure, our workforce, creating millions of middle-class jobs and decades of prosperity and technology leadership. But we took those foundations for granted. And so it’s time to get back to basics.
The Biden administration is making far-reaching investments in our core sources of national strength – starting with a modern industrial strategy to sustain and expand our economic and technological influence, make our economy and supply chains more resilient, sharpen our competitive edge.
Last year, President Biden signed into law the largest infrastructure investment in our history: to modernize our highways, our ports, airports, rail, and bridges; to move goods to market faster, to boost our productivity; to expand high-speed internet to every corner of the country; to draw more businesses and more jobs to more parts of America.
We’re making strategic investments in education and worker training, so that American workers – the best in the world – can design, build, and operate the technologies of the future.
Because our industrial strategy centers on technology, we want to invest in research, development, advanced manufacturing. Sixty years ago, our government spent more than twice as much on research as a percentage of our economy as we do now – investments that, in turn, catalyzed private-sector innovation. It’s how we won the space race, invented the semiconductor, built the internet. We used to rank first in the world in R&D as a proportion of our GDP – now we’re ninth. Meanwhile, China has risen from eighth place to second.
With bipartisan congressional support, we’ll reverse these trends and make historic investments in research and innovation, including in fields like artificial intelligence, biotechnology, quantum computing. These are areas that Beijing is determined to lead – but given America’s advantages, the competition is ours to lose, not only in terms of developing new technologies but also in shaping how they’re used around the world, so that they’re rooted in democratic values, not authoritarian ones.
The leadership – Senator Romney and others – the House and Senate have passed bills to support this agenda, including billions to produce semiconductors here and to strengthen other critical supply chains. Now we need Congress to send the legislation to the President for his signature.
We can get this done, and it can’t wait – supply chains are moving now, and if we don’t draw them here, they’ll be established somewhere else. As President Biden has said, the Chinese Communist Party is lobbying against this legislation – because there’s no better way to enhance our global standing and influence than to deliver on our domestic renewal. These investments will not only make America stronger; they’ll make us a stronger partner and ally as well.
One of the most powerful, even magical things about the United States is that we have long been a destination for talented, driven people from every part of the planet. That includes millions of students from China, who have enriched our communities and forged lifelong bonds with Americans. Last year, despite the pandemic, we issued more than 100,000 visas to Chinese students in just four months – our highest rate ever. We’re thrilled that they’ve chosen to study in the United States – we’re lucky to have them.
And we’re lucky when the best global talent not only studies here but stays here – as more than 80 percent of Chinese students who pursue science and technology PhDs in the United States have done in recent years. They help drive innovation here at home, and that benefits all of us. We can stay vigilant about our national security without closing our doors.
We also know from our history that when we’re managing a challenging relationship with another government, people from that country or with that heritage can be made to feel that they don’t belong here – or that they’re our adversaries. Nothing could be further from the truth. Chinese Americans made invaluable contributions to our country; they’ve done so for generations. Mistreating someone of Chinese descent goes against everything we stand for as a country – whether a Chinese national visiting or living here, or a Chinese American, or any other Asian American whose claim to this country is equal to anyone else’s. Racism and hate have no place in a nation built by generations of immigrants to fulfill the promise of opportunity for all.
We have profound differences with the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Government. But those differences are between governments and systems – not between our people. The American people have great respect for the Chinese people. We respect their achievements, their history, their culture. We deeply value the ties of family and friendship that connect us. And we sincerely wish for our governments to work together on issues that matter to their lives and to the lives of Americans, and for that matter the lives of people around the world.
There’s another core source of national strength that we’ll be relying on in this decisive decade: our democracy.
A hundred years ago, if asked what constitutes the wealth of a nation, we might list the expanse of our land, the size of our population, the strength of our military, the abundance of our natural resources. And thankfully, we’re still wealthy in all of those attributes. But more than ever, in this 21st century, the true wealth of a nation is found in our people – our human resources – and our ability to unleash their full potential.
We do that with our democratic system. We debate, we argue, we disagree, we challenge each other, including our elected leaders. We deal with our deficiencies openly; we don’t pretend they don’t exist or sweep them under the rug. And though progress can feel painfully slow, can be difficult and ugly, by and large we consistently work toward a society where people from all backgrounds can flourish, guided by national values that unite, motivate, and uplift us.
We are not perfect. But at our best, we always strive to be – in the words of our Constitution – a more perfect union. Our democracy is designed to make that happen.
That’s what the American people and the American model offer, and it’s one of the most powerful assets in this contest.
Now, Beijing believes that its model is the better one; that a party-led centralized system is more efficient, less messy, ultimately superior to democracy. We do not seek to transform China’s political system. Our task is to prove once again that democracy can meet urgent challenges, create opportunity, advance human dignity; that the future belongs to those who believe in freedom and that all countries will be free to chart their own paths without coercion.
The second piece of our strategy is aligning with our allies and partners to advance a shared vision for the future.
From day one, the Biden administration has worked to re-energize America’s unmatched network of alliances and partnerships and to re-engage in international institutions. We’re encouraging partners to work with each other, and through regional and global organizations. And we’re standing up new coalitions to deliver for our people and meet the tests of the century ahead.
Nowhere is this more true than in the Indo-Pacific region, where our relationships, including our treaty alliances, are among our strongest in the world.
The United States shares the vision that countries and people across the region hold: one of a free and open Indo-Pacific where rules are developed transparently and applied fairly; where countries are free to make their own sovereign decisions; where goods, ideas, and people flow freely across land, sky, cyberspace, the open seas, and governance is responsive to the people.
President Biden reinforced these priorities this week with his trip to the region, where he reaffirmed our vital security alliances with South Korea and Japan, and deepened our economic and technology cooperation with both countries.
He launched the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, a first-of-its-kind initiative for the region. It will, in the President’s words, “help all our countries’ economies grow faster and fairer.” IPEF, as we call it, renews American economic leadership but adapts it for the 21st century by addressing cutting-edge issues like the digital economy, supply chains, clean energy, infrastructure, and corruption. A dozen countries, including India, have already joined. Together, IPEF members make up more than a third of the global economy.
The President also took part in the leaders’ summit of the Quad countries – Australia, Japan, India, the United States. The Quad never met at the leader level before President Biden took office. Since he convened the first leaders’ meeting last year, the Quad has held four summits. It’s become a leading regional team. This week, it launched a new Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness, so our partners across the region can better monitor the waters near their shores to address illegal fishing and protect their maritime rights and their sovereignty.
We’re reinvigorating our partnership with ASEAN. Earlier this month, we hosted the U.S.-ASEAN Summit to take on urgent issues like public health and the climate crisis together. This week, seven ASEAN countries became founding members of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. And we’re building bridges among our Indo-Pacific and European partners, including by inviting Asian allies to the NATO summit in Madrid next month.
We’re enhancing peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific; for example, with the new security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, known as AUKUS.
And we’re helping countries in the region and around the world defeat COVID-19. To date, the United States has provided nearly $20 billion to the global pandemic response. That includes more than 540 million doses of safe and effective vaccines donated – not sold – with no political strings attached, on our way to 1.2 billion doses worldwide. And we’re coordinating with a group of 19 countries in a global action plan to get shots into arms.
As a result of all of this diplomacy, we are more aligned with partners across the Indo-Pacific, and we’re working in a more coordinated way toward our shared goals.
We’ve also deepened our alignment across the Atlantic. We launched the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council last year, marshaling the combined weight of nearly 50 percent of the world’s GDP. Last week, I joined Secretary Raimondo, Ambassador Tai, and our European Commission counterparts for our second meeting to work together on new technology standards, coordinate on investment screening and export controls, strengthen supply chains, boost green tech, and improve food security and digital infrastructure in developing countries.
Meanwhile, we and our European partners set aside 17 years of litigation about aircraft; now, instead of arguing with each other, we’re working to secure a level playing field for our companies and workers in that sector.
Similarly, we worked with the European Union and others to resolve a dispute on steel and aluminum imports, and now we’re coming together around a shared vision on higher climate standards and protecting our workers and industries from Beijing’s deliberate efforts to distort the market to its advantage.
We’re partnering with the European Union to protect our citizens’ privacy while strengthening a shared digital economy that depends on vast flows of data.
With the G20, we reached a landmark deal on a global minimum tax to halt the race to the bottom, make sure that big corporations pay their fair share, and give countries even more resources to invest in their people. More than 130 countries have signed on so far.
We and our G7 partners are pursuing a coordinated, high-standard, and transparent approach to meet the enormous infrastructure needs in developing countries.
We’ve convened global summits on defeating COVID-19 and renewing global democracy, and rejoined the UN Human Rights Council and the WHO, the World Health Organization.
And at a moment of great testing, we and our allies have re-energized NATO, which is now as strong as ever.
These actions are all aimed at defending and, as necessary, reforming the rules-based order that should benefit all nations. We want to lead a race to the top on tech, on climate, infrastructure, global health, and inclusive economic growth. And we want to strengthen a system in which as many countries as possible can come together to cooperate effectively, resolve differences peacefully, write their own futures as sovereign equals.
Our diplomacy is based on partnership and respect for each other’s interests. We don’t expect every country to have the exact same assessment of China as we do. We know that many countries – including the United States – have vital economic or people-to-people ties with China that they want to preserve. This is not about forcing countries to choose. It’s about giving them a choice, so that, for example, the only option isn’t an opaque investment that leaves countries in debt, stokes corruption, harms the environment, fails to create local jobs or growth, and compromises countries’ exercise of their sovereignty. We’ve heard firsthand about buyer’s remorse that these deals can leave behind.
At every step, we’re consulting with our partners, listening to them, taking their concerns to heart, building solutions that address their unique challenges and priorities.
There is growing convergence about the need to approach relations with Beijing with more realism. Many of our partners already know from painful experience how Beijing can come down hard when they make choices that it dislikes. Like last spring, when Beijing cut off Chinese students and tourists from traveling to Australia and imposed an 80 percent tariff on Australian barley exports, because Australia’s Government called for an independent inquiry into COVID’s origin. Or last November, when Chinese Coast Guard vessels used water cannons to stop a resupply of a Philippine navy ship in the South China Sea. Actions like these remind the world of how Beijing can retaliate against perceived opposition.
There’s another area of alignment we share with our allies and partners: human rights.
The United States stands with countries and people around the world against the genocide and crimes against humanity happening in the Xinjiang region, where more than a million people have been placed in detention camps because of their ethnic and religious identity.
We stand together on Tibet, where the authorities continue to wage a brutal campaign against Tibetans and their culture, language, and religious traditions, and in Hong Kong, where the Chinese Communist Party has imposed harsh anti-democratic measures under the guise of national security.
Now, Beijing insists that these are somehow internal matters that others have no right to raise. That is wrong. Its treatment of ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet, along with many other actions, go against the core tenets of the UN Charter that Beijing constantly cites and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that all countries are meant to adhere to.
Beijing’s quashing of freedom in Hong Kong violates its handover commitments, enshrined in a treaty deposited at the United Nations.
We’ll continue to raise these issues and call for change – not to stand against China, but to stand up for peace, security, and human dignity.
That brings us to the third element of our strategy. Thanks to increased investments at home and greater alignment with allies and partners, we are well-positioned to outcompete China in key areas.
For example, Beijing wants to put itself at the center of global innovation and manufacturing, increase other countries’ technological dependence, and then use that dependence to impose its foreign policy preferences. And Beijing is going to great lengths to win this contest – for example, taking advantage of the openness of our economies to spy, to hack, to steal technology and know-how to advance its military innovation and entrench its surveillance state.
So as we make sure the next wave of innovation is unleashed by the United States and our allies and partners, we’ll also protect ourselves against efforts to siphon off our ingenuity or imperil our security.
We’re sharpening our tools to safeguard our technological competitiveness. That includes new and stronger export controls to make sure our critical innovations don’t end up in the wrong hands; greater protections for academic research, to create an open, secure, and supportive environment for science; better cyber defenses; stronger security for sensitive data; and sharper investment screening measures to defend companies and countries against Beijing’s efforts to gain access to sensitive technologies, data, or critical infrastructure; compromise our supply chains; or dominate key strategic sectors.
We believe – and we expect the business community to understand – that the price of admission to China’s market must not be the sacrifice of our core values or long-term competitive and technological advantages. We’re counting on businesses to pursue growth responsibly, assess risk soberly, and work with us not only to protect but to strengthen our national security.
For too long, Chinese companies have enjoyed far greater access to our markets than our companies have in China. For example, Americans who want to read the China Daily or communicate via WeChat are free to do so, but The New York Times and Twitter are prohibited for the Chinese people, except those working for the government who use these platforms to spread propaganda and disinformation. American companies operating in China have been subject to systematic forced technology transfer, while Chinese companies in America have been protected by our rule of law. Chinese filmmakers can freely market their movies to American theater owners without any censorship by the U.S. Government, but Beijing strictly limits the number of foreign movies allowed in the Chinese market, and those that are allowed are subjected to heavy-handed political censorship. China’s businesses in the United States don’t fear using our impartial legal system to defend their rights – in fact, they’re frequently in court asserting claims against the United States Government. The same isn’t true for foreign firms in China.
This lack of reciprocity is unacceptable and it’s unsustainable.
Or consider what happened in the steel market. Beijing directed massive over-investment by Chinese companies, which then flooded the global market with cheap steel. Unlike U.S. companies and other market-oriented firms, Chinese companies don’t need to make a profit – they just get another injection of state-owned bank credit when funds are running low. Plus, they do little to control pollution or protect the rights of their workers, which also keeps costs down. As a consequence, China now accounts for more than half of global steel production, driving U.S. companies – as well as factories in India, Mexico, Indonesia, Europe, and elsewhere – out of the market.
We’ve seen this same model when it comes to solar panels, electric car batteries – key sectors of the 21st century economy that we cannot allow to become completely dependent on China.
Economic manipulations like these have cost American workers millions of jobs. And they’ve harmed the workers and firms of countries around the world. We will push back on market-distorting policies and practices, like subsidies and market access barriers, which China’s government has used for years to gain competitive advantage. We’ll boost supply chain security and resilience by reshoring production or sourcing materials from other countries in sensitive sectors like pharmaceuticals and critical minerals, so that we’re not dependent on any one supplier. We’ll stand together with others against economic coercion and intimidation. And we will work to ensure that U.S. companies don’t engage in commerce that facilitates or benefits from human rights abuses, including forced labor.
In short, we’ll fight for American workers and industry with every tool we have – just as we know that our partners will fight for their workers.
The United States does not want to sever China’s economy from ours or from the global economy – though Beijing, despite its rhetoric, is pursuing asymmetric decoupling, seeking to make China less dependent on the world and the world more dependent on China. For our part, we want trade and investment as long as they’re fair and don’t jeopardize our national security. China has formidable economic resources, including a highly capable workforce. We’re confident that our workers, our companies will compete successfully – and we welcome that competition – on a level playing field.
So as we push back responsibly on unfair technology and economic practices, we’ll work to maintain economic and people-to-people ties connecting the United States and China, consistent with our interests and our values. Beijing may not be willing to change its behavior. But if it takes concrete action to address the concerns that we and many other countries have voiced, we will respond positively.
Competition need not lead to conflict. We do not seek it. We will work to avoid it. But we will defend our interests against any threat.
To that end, President Biden has instructed the Department of Defense to hold China as its pacing challenge, to ensure that our military stays ahead. We’ll seek to preserve peace through a new approach that we call “integrated deterrence” – bringing in allies and partners; working across the conventional, the nuclear, space, and informational domains; drawing on our reinforcing strengths in economics, in technology, and in diplomacy.
The administration is shifting our military investments away from platforms that were designed for the conflicts of the 20th century toward asymmetric systems that are longer-range, harder to find, easier to move. We’re developing new concepts to guide how we conduct military operations. And we’re diversifying our force posture and global footprint, fortifying our networks, critical civilian infrastructure, and space-based capabilities. We’ll help our allies and partners in the region with their own asymmetric capabilities, too.
We’ll continue to oppose Beijing’s aggressive and unlawful activities in the South and East China Seas. Nearly six years ago, an international tribunal found that Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea have no basis in international law. We’ll support the region’s coastal states in upholding their maritime rights. We’ll work with allies and partners to uphold freedom of navigation and overflight, which has enabled the region’s prosperity for decades. And we’ll continue to fly and sail wherever international law allows.
On Taiwan, our approach has been consistent across decades and administrations. As the President has said, our policy has not changed. The United States remains committed to our “one China” policy, which is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three Joint Communiques, the Six Assurances. We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.
We continue to have an abiding interest in peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. We’ll continue to uphold our commitments under the Taiwan Relations Act to assist Taiwan in maintaining a sufficient self-defense capability – and, as indicated in the TRA, to “maintain our capacity to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security or the social or economic system, of Taiwan.” We enjoy a strong unofficial relationship with Taiwan, a vibrant democracy and leading economy in the region. We’ll continue to expand our cooperation with Taiwan on our many shared interests and values, support Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the international community, deepen our economic ties, consistent with our “one China” policy.
While our policy has not changed, what has changed is Beijing’s growing coercion – like trying to cut off Taiwan’s relations with countries around the world and blocking it from participating in international organizations. And Beijing has engaged in increasingly provocative rhetoric and activity, like flying PLA aircraft near Taiwan on an almost daily basis. These words and actions are deeply destabilizing; they risk miscalculation and threaten the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait. As we saw from the President’s discussions with allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific, maintaining peace and stability across the strait is not just a U.S. interest; it is a matter of international concern, critical to regional and global security and prosperity.
As President Biden likes to say, the only conflict worse than an intended one is an unintended one. We’ll manage this relationship responsibly to prevent that from happening. We’ve prioritized crisis communications and risk reduction measures with Beijing. And on this issue – and every other – we remain committed to intense diplomacy alongside intense competition.
Even as we invest, align, and compete, we’ll work together with Beijing where our interests come together. We can’t let the disagreements that divide us stop us from moving forward on the priorities that demand that we work together, for the good of our people and for the good of the world.
That starts with climate. China and the United States had years of stalemate on climate, which gridlocked the world – but also periods of progress, which galvanized the world. The climate diplomacy channel launched in 2013 between China and the United States unleashed global momentum that produced the Paris Agreement. Last year at COP26, the world’s hopes were buoyed when the United States and China issued our Glasgow Joint Declaration to work together to address emissions from methane to coal.
Climate is not about ideology. It’s about math. There’s simply no way to solve climate change without China’s leadership, the country that produces 28 percent of global emissions. The International Energy Agency has made clear that if China sticks with its current plan and does not peak its emissions until 2030, then the rest of the world must go to zero by 2035. And that’s simply not possible.
Today about 20 nations are responsible for 80 percent of emissions. China is number one. The United States is number two. Unless we all do much more, much faster, the financial and human cost will be catastrophic. Plus, competing on clean energy and climate policy can produce results that benefit everyone.
The progress that the United States and China make together – including through the working group established by the Glasgow Declaration – is vital to our success in avoiding the worst consequences of this crisis. I urge China to join us in accelerating the pace of these shared efforts.
Likewise, on the COVID-19 pandemic, our fates are linked. And our hearts go out to the Chinese people as they deal with this latest wave. We’ve been through our own deeply painful ordeal with COVID. That’s why we’re so convinced that all countries need to work together to vaccinate the world – not in exchange for favors or political concessions, but for the simple reason that no country will be safe until all are safe. And all nations must transparently share data and samples – and provide access to experts – for new variants and emerging and re-emerging pathogens, to prevent the next pandemic even as we fight the current one.
On nonproliferation and arms control, it’s in all of our interests to uphold the rules, the norms, the treaties that have reduced the spread of weapons of mass destruction. China and the United States must keep working together, and with other countries, to address Iran and North Korea’s nuclear programs. And we remain ready to discuss directly with Beijing our respective responsibilities as nuclear powers.
To counter illegal and illicit narcotics, especially synthetic opioids like fentanyl that killed more than 100,000 Americans last year, we want to work with China to stop international drug trafficking organizations from getting precursor chemicals, many of which originate in China.
As a global food crisis threatens people worldwide, we look to China – a country that’s achieved great things in agriculture – to help with a global response. Last week at the United Nations, the United States convened a meeting of foreign ministers to strengthen global food security. We extended an invitation to China to join. We’ll continue to do so.
And as the world’s economy recovers from the devastation of the pandemic, global macroeconomic coordination between the United States and China is key – through the G20, the IMF, other venues, and of course, bilaterally. That comes with the territory of being the world’s two largest economies.
In short, we’ll engage constructively with China wherever we can, not as a favor to us or anyone else, and never in exchange for walking away from our principles, but because working together to solve great challenges is what the world expects from great powers, and because it’s directly in our interest. No country should withhold progress on existential transnational issues because of bilateral differences.
The scale and the scope of the challenge posed by the People’s Republic of China will test American diplomacy like nothing we’ve seen before. I’m determined to give the State Department and our diplomats the tools that they need to meet this challenge head on as part of my modernization agenda. This includes building a China House – a department-wide integrated team that will coordinate and implement our policy across issues and regions, working with Congress as needed. And here, I must mention an outstanding team at our embassy in Beijing and our consulates across China, led by Ambassador Nick Burns. They do exceptional work every day, and many have been doing their jobs in recent weeks through these intense COVID lockdowns. Despite extreme conditions, they’ve persisted. We’re grateful for this terrific team.
I’ve never been more convinced about the power and the purpose of American diplomacy or sure about our capacity to meet the challenges of this decisive decade. To the American people: let’s recommit to investing in our core strengths, in our people, in our democracy, in our innovative spirit. As President Biden often says, it’s never a good bet to bet against America. But let’s bet on ourselves and win the competition for the future.
To countries around the world committed to building an open, secure, and prosperous future, let’s work in common cause to uphold the principles that make our shared progress possible and stand up for the right of every nation to write its own future. And to the people of China: we’ll compete with confidence; we’ll cooperate wherever we can; we’ll contest where we must. We do not see conflict.
There’s no reason why our great nations cannot coexist peacefully, and share in and contribute to human progress together. That’s what everything I’ve said today boils down to: advancing human progress, leaving to our children a world that’s more peaceful, more prosperous, and more free.
Thank you very much for listening. (Applause.)
Bureau of East Asian and Pacific AffairsChinaOffice of the SpokespersonThe Secretary of StateTibet
