US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that "Our goal … is not to engage in a new Cold War. It's not to contain China … And when it comes to my own visit to China, when the conditions are right I'll certainly look forward to pursuing that".
Yet at the same time the US Navy is conducting military exercises with the Philippines in the South China Sea with China as its imaginary enemy.
And when US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said, "We still want to get Secretary Blinken on a plane to China" on March 29, the diehard secessionist-minded Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen was being welcomed by US politicians on the first leg of her "stopover" in New York despite Beijing's stern opposition.
While Washington was trying to attribute the fraught state of Sino-US relations to Beijing giving a cold shoulder to the proposed visit of Blinken in the following days, US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met with Tsai during the second leg of her "stopover" in Simi Valley, California, on April 5.
The broad smiles the US politicians wore while opening their arms to welcome Tsai, a de facto puppet of Washington in implementing its strategy to contain China, and the knitted brows of both Blinken and Kirby at Beijing's so-called lack of interest in hosting Blinken show the Joe Biden administration's hypocrisy in dealing with Sino-US relations.
Its irresponsible handling of the Taiwan question, which it knows is at the heart of China's core interests and concerns the foundation of relations with China, shows the assurances that it has repeatedly offered to Beijing that it wants to put Sino-US relations back on track have been nothing but empty talk. Although it has repeatedly asserted that "the US does not support 'Taiwan independence'", it has openly reneged on the commitments set out in the three Sino-US joint communiques that are the bedrock of bilateral ties.
The Biden administration should be reminded that it was the one that canceled Blinken's scheduled visit to Beijing in February by allowing the China hawks to waywardly hype up the so-called Chinese spy balloon incident.
It should also be reminded that while expecting China to welcome its top diplomat, neither has it stopped blacklisting Chinese entities, nor has the US legislature ceased pushing through bills and laws to ban Chinese companies spuriously claiming they pose a security threat. Next week, the House of Representatives is set to vote on a bill to crack down on Chinese telecommunications companies Huawei and ZTE Corp again.
Meanwhile, the US military has further intensified its provocative, intimidating and spying actions targeting China in the Asia-Pacific under the excuse of exercising "freedom of navigation".
Yet despite the administration saying one thing and doing another, Beijing has still been in discussions with it about a possible trip to China by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to discuss economic issues, and has welcomed some lower-ranking officials' visits recently.
The responsibility for the current difficulties in China-US relations does not lie with China. The US needs to stop undermining the political foundation of the bilateral relations while stressing the need to establish "guardrails" for them.