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The visit to China by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is widely viewed as an attempt to repair the deteriorating relationship between the world’s top economic leaders. Blinken himself said “it’s the responsibility of both countries” to figure out how both nations can work together.
Straight Arrow News contributor Peter Zeihan says the trip to Beijing should be viewed as being more about intelligence gathering on a declining superpower, than about diplomacy.
Excerpted from Peter’s June 19 “Zeihan on Geopolitics” newsletter:
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to China to attempt to reset relations. He’s getting flack from both sides, and I won’t talk about that, but I do want to bring up three things …
China has descended into a cult of personality thanks to Xi Jinping. He’s rid the government of anyone capable of conscious thought, so whatever he says = law. In a situation like this (where one man is trying to do EVERYTHING), it’s impossible to have meaningful diplomatic relations.
We have a dying superpower on our hands, and if America’s mitigation plan is to ignore them … there will be no options to manage the fallout. Blinken’s visit, at the very least, is a step towards figuring out what those options might be.
At its core, Blinken’s visit is about intelligence gathering. When you have a leader like Xi (who doesn’t talk to or trust anyone), it’s incredibly difficult to get information. So the only decent way to get info is through a trip like this.
