1/ SecState Blinken will soon embark on a trip to #Beijing, where he will meet w/ senior 🇨🇳officials, possibly even Xi Jinping. The visit is unlikely to lead to breakthroughs, but it can help open channels of communication important for reducing risk of miscalculation & building… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 2/ This trip (June 16-19) will be #Blinken’s first high-level visit to China since the #Biden Administration entered office and he became SecState. Blinken’s original trip in February was postponed in response to the incursion of a Chinese spy balloon into US sovereign airspace.

1/ Chinese Minister of National Defense General Li Shangfu addresses the Shangrila Dialogue on day 2. He mentions China’s Global Security Initiative right off the bat. 2/ Li says we need to ask who is disrupting peace and stability? <utual respect should prevail over bullying. Where hegemonism and power politics exist, there will be instability.

1/ U.S. Secretary of Defense Austin kicks off Saturday morning at the Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore #SLD with a speech entitled "A Shared Vision for the Indo-Pacific." 2/ Countries of Indo-Pacific have come together around a compelling vision of the future. And they’re advancing it in unprecedented ways. It’s a vision of a region in which all countries are free to thrive on their own terms—without coercion, intimidation, or bullying. It’s a… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

1/ No doubt Xi's challenges w/ Covid are daunting. But to me his problem starts with where he wants this to end. At the end of the day, when covid is behind us, Xi wants to say the CCP handled it better than any political system in the world (esp US/Western-led democracies). 2/ The narrative goes: “Sure, China had to sacrifice, but Chinese people are resilient/strong - 中国人能吃苦 (Chinese people can eat bitter!). US/broader West may have returned to normal daily life quicker but they did so at great expense of their citizens safety/public health.

1/ A key question going into 20th Party Congress was would personnel selections reflect an attempt to balance Xi Jinping’s power or was Xi going to run the table. It’s pretty clear, he completely ran the table – this was a clean sweep for him. 2/ We have known that the influence of the China Youth League (CYL) has been severely diminished through a decade of anti-corruption purges under Xi, nevertheless it was one of the only barometers left to gauge whether there would be any checks on Xi's authority/decision making.

1/ Secretary Antony J. Blinken And Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi Before Their Meeting - United States Department of State state.gov/secretary-anto… 2/ Chinese Foreign Ministry readout. fmprc.gov.cn/wjbzhd/202207/…

1/ Int’l news covers horrific atrocities carried out by Russia’s military in Bucha, Ukraine; China’s state media, on the other hand, barely mentions it (if at all) or parrots Russian denials/says Ukraine is lying. @SamBresnick & I explore why this is. carnegieendowment.org/2022/04/04/chi… 2/ China’s diplomatic messaging abroad is robust: paying close attention to situation; calling for calm, restraint, avoiding action that fuel tensions; China welcomes efforts to find diplomatic solution on basis of equality/mutual respect. Strong int'l diplomatic rhetoric.

1.) China's former trade negotiator says China wants to see Trump reelected in 2020 because he is easy to negotiate with and only cares about China purchasing more American products (not pressing China to make important structural changes to its economy).

scmp.com/business/china… 2.) @SamBresnick and I made this point in a recent article where we said China "will see Trump’s acceptance of the watered-down deal, made up mostly of Chinese purchases that have been on the table for more than a year, as a sign of weakness..." carnegieendowment.org/2019/10/15/tru…

1/ I recently published a piece w/ my CTC colleague @SamBresnick in @ForeignPolicy arguing that an increasing number of Chinese officials/scholars (especially from the Chinese strategic community) believe Trump’s policies are actually benefitting Beijing. foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/15/chi… 2/ @McFaul also published an article last week in @ForeignAffairs highlighting that Trump's policies are helping Russian President Vladimir Putin achieve Russia's geopolitical goals.
foreignaffairs.com/articles/russi…