Blinken: West Must Be ‘Very Careful’ About Chinese Investments

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that the US and its allies have to be “very careful” when it comes to Chinese investments in Western economies.

“I think we have to be very careful about exactly what the nature is of that investment,” Blinken said in an interview with BBC. “And if it’s investing in strategic industry, strategic assets, that’s something that countries need to look at very carefully.”

Blinken made the comments when explaining the Biden administration’s China policy. He claims the US not trying to contain China, only that it is trying to uphold the “rules-based order,” a phrase that is now commonly repeated by Biden officials.

The “rules-based order” is code for the US-led world order that Washington sees Beijing as a threat to. A big part of what the US is threatened by is China’s investments across the world.

During the Trump administration, the US began discouraging its allies from participating in China’s global infrastructure project, known as the Belt and Road Initiative. The Biden administration also seems keen to undermine the project and other Chinese investments, as it has essentially declared a new Cold War with China.

Last week, Blinken spoke virtually with leaders of Nigeria and Kenya and warned Africa against doing business with China.

President Biden has floated the idea of global infrastructure project led by the US and its allies to counter the Belt and Road Initiative. “I suggested we should have, essentially, a similar initiative coming from the democratic states,” Biden said he told UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in March.