By Gu Siyu, Luo Zhe and Wang Zhongkui

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was invited to visit China from April 24th to 26th. Director-General of the Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs of the Foreign Ministry Yang Tao briefed Chinese and foreign media that the visit was part of the efforts of the two sides to deliver on the common understandings reached by the two presidents in San Francisco, maintain dialogue, manage differences, promote cooperation, and enhance coordination in international affairs. However, the various behaviors of the U.S. side before the visit cast doubt on its sincerity.

Misrepresenting China-Russia economic and trade cooperation and distorting China's diplomatic stance

Over the past period, the US has intensively hyped up the China-Russia cooperation, accusing China of boosting Russia's defense industry, and even threatened that the Chinese side must "choose between Russia and Europe". As a matter of fact, China is neither the creator of the Ukrainian crisis nor a related party, and the US behavior is smearing normal state relations and provoking confrontation. It is thus clear that what the United States needs are obedient lackeys to form a closed and exclusive clique, instead of cooperative partners who seek common ground and mutual benefit.

Inciting Europe to contain and suppress the development of Chinese enterprises

Prior to the visit, US Secretary of State Blinken and other senior officials repeatedly hyped up the potential "threat" of China's automobiles and chips to Europe when attending the sixth ministerial meeting of the EU-US Trade and Technology Council, and demanded that Europe and the US cooperate in blocking China's development. In addition, the US has continued to take new measures to suppress China in terms of export control, investment review and unilateral sanctions. Many people believe that the US aims to flex muscles by showing off its ability to impose trade sanctions, so as to subdue China. In fact, the US is aggravating the risks instead of "de-risking". Washington is obsessed with coercing its allies into forming exclusive small circles, which goes against the trend of international peaceful development. It is unpopular and leads nowhere.

Undermining the peaceful situation in the South China Sea and the stability of China's neighboring areas

Since the beginning of this year, the US side has turned a blind eye to the facts, made groundless accusations against China's legitimate and lawful activities in the South China Sea, and threatened China with the so-called U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty. However, the US so-called freedom of navigation in the South China Sea is nothing but the freedom of US warships to come all the way to the South China Sea; the so-called "transparency" of the South China Sea by the US is asking Chinese navy to be transparent to the US in China's territory. It is not difficult to find that the US is using the South China Sea issue as an excuse to stubbornly advance its strategy of containing China, constantly interfering in China's internal affairs, smearing China's image, and instigating neighboring countries to confront and isolate China, in an attempt to force China to meet the unreasonable demands put forward by the US.

The coercive US diplomacy has long been incompatible with the creation of good relations in the modern international community, and any visit with the mentality of "subduing China" will only have a negative effect on the communication between the two sides. Both sides should sincerely promote the stable development of relations between the two countries on the basis of respecting each other's interests, and jointly deal with global challenges. China is willing to take the initiative to open the door for cooperation, but the US needs to show its sincerity.

(The authors are from the National University of Defense Technology of the Chinese People's Liberation Army)