The United States and China are collaborating more. But just because they talk more doesn’t mean they trust each other more, one analyst said Wednesday.
“The trend this year has been more engagement, more communications, but not more trust,” Ian Bremmer, president and founder of political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, told Bloomberg TV on Wednesday.
In November, U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met at the APEC summit in San Francisco, appearing to want to ease tensions. Since then, U.S.-China relations have seen more stability, Bremmer said.
Earlier this month, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited China to seek cooperation in areas beneficial to both countries. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also spoke with China’s defense minister last week. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is expected in China on Wednesday.
The surge in high-level meetings signals a thaw in relations between the United States and China – even though the two countries do not see eye to eye on many issues.
“This means that there are still many areas where countries are unhappy with each other, but when there is conflict, the conflict does not spiral out of control – rather the escalations are targeted and calibrated,” Bremmer told Bloomberg TV.
It’s about seeing the glass half full or half empty.
“So we can say that the relationship is deteriorating, that’s true, but it’s deteriorating quite slowly and the relationship is more stable,” Bremmer said.
Communication between the United States and China stabilized tensions on Taiwan
The big advantage of increased communications between the United States and China is that the world’s two biggest powers are less likely to have a direct clash.
This is why tensions between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan – which Beijing claims as its own territory – have remained relatively stable.
“The United States and China know each other’s red lines” and the challenges of that relationship after decades of communication, making it easier to do “extremely nuanced calibrations,” Bremmer said.
He said this understanding between the United States and China is the reason why there was no “strong and sudden escalation that led both sides to crisis” after the vice president’s victory. Taiwanese William Lai – whom Beijing considers a separatist – in Taiwan’s presidential election in January.
“It’s always better to have more engagement, more conversations, especially when you don’t trust each other,” Bremmer said.
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