US-China ties: focus on national security 'not healthy', head of advisory body says
South China Morning Post
4 min read
There should be a mechanism for the US and Chinese leaders to regularly meet, and they could agree on how to define "national security" as a way to avoid restrictions that affect the world economy, the head of the National Committee on US-China Relations says.
Stephen Orlins, who leads the New York-based advisory body that promotes unofficial exchanges between the two sides, also said US politicians had limited scope to push for a healthier relationship with China given the sentiment among voters.
"The American public is extremely negative [about] China," Orlins said at a University of Hong Kong seminar on US-China relations on Tuesday. "What that means to a politician in the US is ... there's not a tonne of benefits [for] a politician [to do] something constructive with China."
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Stephen Orlins called for more frequent and regular communication between the leaders. Photo: Xinhua alt=Stephen Orlins called for more frequent and regular communication between the leaders. Photo: Xinhua>
He cited a Pew Research Centre survey from March that found 83 per cent of adults in the United States had negative views of China. It also found that four in 10 saw China as an enemy of their country, rather than a competitor or partner - up 13 percentage points from 2022.
"What's happened over the last few years is we've seen an increased securitisation of the relationship, so everything has become [about] national security," Orlins said. "That's not healthy because ultimately when you restrict these technologies [and] goods, it creates an inefficiency in the world economy that hurts people, pricing and [causes] inflation."
He said the US and Chinese presidents could potentially come to an agreement on how they define "national security", which would provide clarity for people and institutions from both sides wanting to collaborate.
"We need a definition of ... what is effectively whitelisted - what we can continue to sell, continue to export, continue to jointly export," Orlins said.
He said there should also be a "restrictive list" of goods that cannot be sold and a "grey list" of items that require further discussion to avoid innovation being restricted.
The effect on collaboration in biotechnology was especially troubling, he said.
"My sister takes a cancer drug that's developed in China. I couldn't care less where that cancer drug is developed, I want my sister to get better," Orlins said. "That there would even be consideration that this kind of joint research can't be done is to me very disturbing because that has an effect on my life."
Orlins was hopeful that Xi Jinping and Joe Biden would meet at next month's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, but said more frequent and regular communication was needed.
"My hope is we could set up a mechanism which has regular meetings between the two presidents ... we need to have a regular mechanism, not because there's an Apec meeting, a G20 meeting," Orlins said. "We should not allow three months to go by without some way of having them talking."
He noted that bilateral ties had improved since China's top diplomat Wang Yi and US national security adviser Jake Sullivan held two days of talks in Vienna in May. Senior US officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, climate envoy John Kerry and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo have visited Beijing since then.
Informal exchanges such as Tuesday's HKU seminar have also become increasingly frequent as the two sides step up backchannel diplomacy.
In Beijing on Monday, Yang Tao, the head of North American and Oceanian affairs at China's foreign ministry, met Susan Thornton, senior fellow at Yale University's Paul Tsai China Centre, and Rick Waters, who heads Eurasia Group's China practice. They exchanged views on US-China ties, cooperation in various fields, Ukraine and the Middle East, according to a statement from Yang's department.
It followed a meeting last week between Liao Min, China's finance vice-minister, and Colm Rafferty, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, along with representatives of member companies. The finance ministry said they had "in-depth communication" on trade ties, China's economic situation and policies, as well as concerns about US companies operating in China.
And earlier this month, a group of Chinese academics led by Yu Tiejun of Peking University travelled to Washington on an eight-day trip, meeting US academics and government officials including Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and Sarah Beran, National Security Council senior director for China and Taiwan affairs.
