Tensions between the US and China have worsened despite renewed diplomatic engagement in the last year and Beijing shows few signs of making major concessions, according to a report to Congress issued just a day before President Joe Biden is set to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in San Francisco.
“The result of high-level meetings between the United States and China has been merely the promise of further meetings — that is, of more talk rather than concrete actions,” the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said in its annual report to Congress, which was released on Tuesday. “China has shown an increased willingness to engage with the United States, but there is little evidence that it intends to make concessions or modify its own policies to improve relations.”
The commission, which was established in 2000 to inform US lawmakers on the “on the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship” between the US and China, makes for downbeat reading ahead of the highly anticipated meeting between Biden and Xi at the APEC summit on Wednesday.
Their first in-person sit-down in a year comes after an intense period of diplomacy over the last six months, starting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Beijing in June, which set off a series of cabinet-level meetings. Despite the flurry of visits, however, the Biden administration may only now see some concrete results.
As part of the Biden-Xi meeting, the two sides may announce an agreement for Beijing to crack down on the manufacture and export of fentanyl and its source material, according to people familiar with the matter, finally delivering after raising the issue with China on multiple occasions. The Chinese government may also end a long commercial freeze on Boeing Co. and unveil a commitment for the US company’s 737 jetliner at the summit this week, Bloomberg News reported.
The report doesn’t cover those results. It argues that despite the new rounds of diplomatic engagement, the trajectory of US-China relations has only worsened.
“Tensions between the two were said to be rising or easing, warming or chilling, usually as the result of high-level visits (or the lack of them),” according to the commission, which was created especially to focus on perceived threats from China. “The underlying reality was that, amid these ups and downs, the rivalry between the United States and China was intensifying.”
Among other findings, the commission said in its report:
- China “may now be on the verge of its most serious economic crisis in 40 years.” Its economic growth has “remained anemic” despite expectations that ending strict Covid-19 lockdowns would unlock potential.
- US restrictions intended to curb China’s ability to manufacture advanced semiconductors have “prompted China to increase efforts to draw foreign talent to its chip industry, circumvent export controls, expand espionage activities, and promote indigenous innovation.”
- The US, European Union and Asian partners “all need to do much more, in collaboration with one another, to counter China’s aggressive policies overseas and continuing mercantilism at home.”
- Chinese companies have tried to evade Trump-era tariffs targeting Chinese trade by setting up entities and facilities overseas, including elsewhere in Asia and in Mexico, leading to continued reliance on China’s economy through transshipments of goods through third countries
