US says China acting 'more aggressively abroad', behaving in 'adversarial ways'

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview on May 1 that China’s actions in recent months have been “more aggressively abroad” and that it was behaving “increasingly in adversarial ways.” During an interview with CBS News, when Blinken was asked if the United States was heading toward a military confrontation with China, he replied saying that such an action is “profoundly against the interests of both Beijing and Washington to even head in that direction. However, the US Secretary of State still noted the ‘aggressiveness’ of China which according to him, is a ‘fact’.

“It's profoundly against the interests of both China and the United States to, to get to that point, or even to head in that direction,” he said.

He added, “What we've witnessed over the last several years is China acting more repressively at home and more aggressively abroad. That is a fact."

Biden administration has ‘real concerns’

Acknowledging the reported theft of billions of dollars or more in the United States trade secrets along with the intellectual property by China, Blinked said that US President Joe Biden’s administration had “real concerns” about the IP issue. The US Secretary of State also said that it sounded like the actions “of someone who's trying to compete unfairly and increasingly in adversarial ways. But we're much more effective and stronger when we're bringing like-minded and similarly aggrieved countries together to say to Beijing: 'This can't stand and it won't stand.'"

Meanwhile, on Friday, Biden’s administration said that China had fallen short on its commitments to safeguard the US intellectual property in the “Phase 1” US-China trade deal that was signed under his predecessor Donald Trump last year. Those commitments that the present administration flagged were part of the sweeping deal between the Trump administration and China. Among other commitments, the deal also included regulatory changes on agricultural biotechnology and commitments to buy nearly $200 billion in US exports over the span of two years.

In the interview on Sunday, Blinken noted that the US is not planning to “contain China” but to “uphold this rules-based order - that China is posing a challenge to. Anyone who poses a challenge to that order, we're going to stand up and - and defend it."

Image credits: AP