U.S. Aims to Constrain China by Shaping Environment Around It, Blinken Says

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Thursday that despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China remains the greatest challenger to the United States and its allies, and that the Biden administration aims to “shape the strategic environment” around the Asian superpower to limit its increasingly aggressive actions.

“China is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do it,” Mr. Blinken said in a speech laying out the administration’s strategy on China. “Beijing’s vision would move us away from the universal values that have sustained so much of the world’s progress over the past 75 years.”

The speech was a much shorter, public version of the administration’s classified strategy on China, which was largely completed last fall. U.S. officials have concluded that decades of direct economic and diplomatic engagement to compel the Chinese Communist Party to abide by the American-led order have largely failed, and Mr. Blinken asserted that the goal now should be to form coalitions with other nations to limit the party’s influence and try to curb its aggressions in that way.

“We can’t rely on Beijing to change its trajectory,” he said. “So we will shape the strategic environment around Beijing to advance our vision for an open and inclusive international system.”

China’s statements before and during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have further clarified for American and European officials the difficulties of engaging with Beijing. On Feb. 4, two weeks before the invasion, President Vladimir V. Putin met with President Xi Jinping in Beijing as their two governments issued a 5,000-word statement announcing a “no limits” partnership that aims to oppose the international diplomatic and economic systems overseen by the United States and its allies. Since the war began, the Chinese government has given strong diplomatic support to Russia by reiterating Mr. Putin’s criticisms of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and spreading disinformation and conspiracy theories that undermine the United States and Ukraine.

In his speech, given at George Washington University on the theme “Invest, Align and Compete,” Mr. Blinken noted the human rights abuses, repression of ethnic minorities and suppression of free speech and assembly in the regions of Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. In recent years, those issues have galvanized greater animus toward China among Democratic and Republican politicians and policymakers. “We’ll continue to raise these issues and call for change,” he said.

Mr. Blinken reiterated the longstanding U.S. policy on Taiwan, despite remarks by President Biden in Tokyo on Monday that the United States had a “commitment” to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if China attacks the self-governing democratic island. The U.S. government for decades has maintained a policy of “strategic ambiguity” on Taiwan — leaving unsaid whether it would directly defend the island from China. Mr. Blinken said it was China’s recent actions…