Senior US official defends blend of diplomacy and competition with China in Indo-Pacific
Daniel Kritenbrink of State Department says dealing with Beijing in the region requires ‘intense’ statecraft and communications
A senior American diplomat responsible for the US policy of a “free and open” Indo-Pacific defended the approach Tuesday of combining “intense diplomacy” with Beijing while pursuing “intense competition”.
“Let’s not underestimate the achievement of making sure that we have channels of communication between Washington and Beijing,” Daniel Kritenbrink, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said during an event at the Stimson Centre think tank.
Reducing the risk of an accidental conflict between the two superpowers, he added, was “our top priority”, saying that US President Joe Biden and his administration were doing “everything possible” to defuse tensions.
Kritenbrink contended, in fact, that the most dangerous period in the relationship had already passed. He said that point occurred more than a year ago, when the transit of a Chinese balloon over US territory led Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel his trip to Beijing in February 2023.
China declared it was merely a weather balloon that had strayed off course; the US called it a spy balloon and downed it off the coast of South Carolina.
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US military searches for debris from downed Chinese balloon
“We barely had any channels of communication whatsoever,” Kritenbrink recalled. “Now, if we fast-forward a year and a half from there, this relationship is as complicated as ever.”
