US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that China has recently been “acting more aggressively abroad and is increasingly hostile”.
When asked by CBS News whether Washington is heading for a military confrontation with Beijing, Blinken said, “It is in both the interests of China and the United States not to let things get that far, or even to go in that direction. What we have seen in recent years is that China is behaving more repressively at home and more aggressively abroad. That is a fact. “
Blinken was concerned about the theft of hundreds of billions of dollars in US trade secrets and intellectual property by China. The Biden government has “real concerns” about this issue, Binken said.
On Friday, President Joe Biden’s administration said China has failed to live up to its commitments to protect US intellectual property in the US-China “Phase 1” trade agreement signed last year.
The commitments were part of the sweeping trade deal between former President Donald Trump’s administration and Beijing. This included the Chinese promise to buy around 200 billion dollars (more than 165 billion euros) worth of American exports within two years.
