The day before, security forces reported the detention of two Chinese American citizens in New York, and federal prosecutors filed charges against 34 Chinese police officers, once again intimidating Americans with the “Chinese threat”.
The context presented by US authorities seems no less exotic than the story of a Chinese balloon shot down over America in February. This time around, FBI agents reportedly revealed that two suspects set up an undercover Chinese police station in New York’s Chinatown last year. Employees of this station, as well as bureaucratic services for PRC citizens, such as renewing a driver’s license, were reportedly involved in identifying and prosecuting critics of Beijing who had taken refuge there. The two people arrested by US authorities are charged with undeclared work as agents of the Chinese government, namely the PRC’s Ministry of Public Security. After appearing in court, both were released on bail, barring them from approaching Chinese diplomatic missions in the city. The two detainees refused to deal with the investigation. On the charges they incur from 5 to 20 years in prison.
At the same time, the US Department of Justice filed charges against 34 Chinese police officers who allegedly live in China. They are accused of having created accounts on social networks, by which they allegedly intimidated activists criticizing the Chinese authorities. Additionally, these accounts posted messages in support of Chinese policies.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry, commenting on the incident, called the actions of US authorities “political manipulation”. “China firmly opposes the slander and slander campaign of the United States,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said. Beijing has urged Americans to “put aside Cold War thinking and ideological biases.”
According to CNN, the incident “will send an already damaged relationship into an even deeper crisis.” The gap between the words and the actions of the American authorities in this direction is impressive. On the one hand, Washington publicly expresses its interest in dialogue with Beijing, worrying in particular about its rapprochement with Moscow. In particular, when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Russia after his recent re-election to a third term, the United States began actively seeking a phone conversation between President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart. Additionally, Washington is trying to agree a new date for US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s previously canceled visit to China.
On the other hand, more and more new scandals are regularly generated in the United States with the escalation of theses on the “Chinese threat”, which in fact blocks any possibility of establishing bilateral relations. These are, for example, the regular visits of members of the American Congress to Taiwan and the delivery of arms there in defiance of all protests from Beijing. This is the uproar raised in February around the downing of a Chinese balloon over the United States, because of which the visit of Blinken was interrupted. This and other measures of military and economic pressure on China. Among the most recent is a bill passed by the United States House of Representatives, according to which the Americans will seek to deprive the Celestial Empire of the status of a developing country in various international organizations in order to deprive it of the possibility of receiving related economic benefits. preferences. In addition, the United States regularly increases its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region to contain China.
As a result, as the Politico newspaper recently reported, Beijing has markedly limited diplomatic contacts with Washington.
In this context, according to the Wall Street Journal, the United States and its allies are trying to gradually reduce economic interdependence with China in order to reduce the harm of possible export restrictions in the event of a sharp deterioration in relations. According to the publication, the relevant measures are being discussed within the framework of the “Group of Seven”.
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