The Washington Post-Chinas top diplomat to visit DC amid tensions over South China Sea Israel
October 23, 2023 4 min 652 words
这篇报道反映了中国外交部长王毅将访问华盛顿，这是自年初中国间谍气球漂越美国领空后中美紧张局势升级以来，中国官员的最高级别访问。此次会晤的背后，预示着北京可能会为中国国家主席习近平下个月参加亚太领导人峰会（亚太经合组织）在旧金山的访问铺平道路，这将是习近平自2017年以来首次访问美国。 同时，拜登政府正在竭尽全力施加压力，要求伊朗在以色列和哈马斯之间的冲突中克制，包括鼓励中国作为伊朗的主要合作伙伴利用其影响力。王毅将会见国务卿安东尼·布林肯，他于今年夏季率先对中国进行一系列访问。此外，他计划会晤国家安全顾问杰克·沙利文。 尽管双方在今年夏季开始的重新接触过程中一直在努力缓解紧张局势，但也出现了尖锐的转折，包括拜登在国务卿访问中国后不久称习近平为“独裁者”。此外，中国在俄罗斯对乌克兰的战争中站在莫斯科一边，尽管它没有完全动用其军工实力来支持克里姆林宫。 此外，中国还在军事方面进行了重大投资，根据上周发布的五角大楼报告，计划在本十年末将其作战核弹头数量翻倍。尽管美中两国的军事飞机在南海发生多次近距离接触，但报告指出，北京和华盛顿之间的军事通信有所恶化。 最近，一艘中国海警船在南海的第二托马斯滩附近与一艘菲律宾补给船相撞，而中国对该地区的领土主张已导致与邻国和华盛顿的冲突。 这篇报道强调了中美之间的竞争和紧张关系，以及美国政府试图在全球其他地方影响事件时，仍需要倚重中国的经济和政治影响力。同时，中国在中东地区的重要外交作用日益增加，它在最近促成了沙特和伊朗之间的缓和。美国官员表示，他们希望北京可以再次利用其影响力，以避免一场地区战争，他们担心以色列可能会对人口稠密的加沙进行地面入侵，这可能会导致大规模的平民伤亡。这次高级外交会晤将对未来的国际关系和地缘政治局势产生深远影响。
2023-10-23T19:44:25.628Z
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Washington this week, the State Department said Monday, the highest-level visit by a Chinese official since tensions spiked early this year after a Chinese spy balloon floated across American airspace.
The three days of meetings, starting Thursday, are the latest sign that Beijing is laying the groundwork for a possible visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in San Francisco next month, which would be his first trip to the United States since 2017.
It comes as the Biden administration seeks to use every lever it can to pressure Iran to hold back from the conflict between Israel and Hamas, including by encouraging Beijing, a major partner of Tehran, to use its influence.
Wang will meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who visited Beijing in June as the first of a series of trips to China by cabinet secretaries this summer. He also plans to meet with national security adviser Jake Sullivan, following two days of talks in Malta in mid-September. A senior administration official declined to comment about whether Wang will also have an audience with President Biden, although that would be typical, especially after Blinken met Xi in China during his visit.
The two sides have been trying to manage tensions after a process of re-engagement began this summer, although there have been sharp detours, including when Biden called Xi a “dictator” shortly after the secretary of state returned from China. Beijing has sided with Moscow in its war against Ukraine, although it has held back from unleashing the full might of its military industry in support of the Kremlin.
China is also making major investments in its military, according to a Pentagon report released last week, including a doubling of its operational nuclear warheads by the end of the decade. The report noted a deterioration of military communications between Beijing and Washington, despite a spate of close calls between U.S. and Chinese military aircraft over the South China Sea.
Just this weekend, a Chinese Coast Guard ship collided with a Philippine resupply ship near the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, where Beijing’s territorial claims have led to clashes with neighbors and Washington.
“We are in competition with China. We seek to manage that competition responsibly,” a senior administration official said, speaking to reporters on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly.
U.S. officials say they have few illusions about Chinese behavior. Xi rolled out the red carpet for Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing last week, and the senior administration official called the Chinese Coast Guard behavior “destabilizing and dangerous and irresponsible.”
Where China stands on the Israel-Gaza war and what it stands to gain
Despite the rivalry with the United States, China’s economic and political influence is still crucial as Washington seeks to influence events elsewhere in the world.
Blinken called Wang earlier this month as he crisscrossed the Middle East, seeking to get China to weigh in with the Iranians to hold them back from entering the conflict in Israel and Gaza. Hezbollah, the Lebanese political and militant group that is backed by Iran, has been lobbing rockets into Israel and senior U.S. officials are deeply concerned about the prospect of a two-front war if Tehran decides to up the pressure.
China, with its significant economic ties in the Middle East, has become an increasingly important diplomatic actor in the region, brokering the recent détente between Saudi Arabia and Iran. U.S. officials said they hope Beijing can use that muscle again in the service of preventing a regional war, which they fear could be triggered by a potential Israeli ground invasion into densely-populated Gaza and the significant civilian casualties that would likely result.
John Hudson contributed to this report.