Blinken visit chance for US to address the 'decoupling' of its words with deeds: China Daily editorial

The United States is set to "allow" chipmakers of the Republic of Korea and Taiwan island to continue to operate and expand their current chip-making operations on the Chinese mainland "without worry of pushback" from the Joe Biden administration.

According to a report of The Wall Street Journal, Alan Estevez, the US Commerce Department's under-secretary for industry and security, told a gathering of the Semiconductor Industry Association last week that the Biden administration planned to extend earlier chip export control waivers it granted to top chipmakers, such as Samsung, SK Hynix and TSMC, allowing them to send US chip-making tools to their plants on the Chinese mainland.

With the Chinese mainland accounting for 40 percent of its chip exports, the ROK's chip exports were down more than 36 percent in May compared with the same period of last year. The decline started 10 months ago as a result of the pressure Washington has put on the ROK to restrict the Chinese mainland's access to semiconductors. Seoul has been pressing Washington to ease the export controls for months.

That Japan, which is another key ally of the US in its "chip war" against Beijing, has not received similar benevolence shows the cost-benefit analysis that Washington is carrying out as it tries to get a vice-like grip on supply chains.

That should be regarded as the US' recognition that waging an all-out "chip war" against China is unsustainable. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pointed out at a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Tuesday that it would be a mistake for the US to try to "decouple" from China and called for deepening economic ties between the world's two largest economies, saying that she believes the economic relationship with China is critical. "I think we gain and China gains from trade and investment that is as open as possible, and it would be disastrous for us to attempt to decouple from China," said Yellen.

By making the waivers and licenses it issues to foreign companies a "pass" for world trade, the US is seeking to exert control over the global industry and supply chains. In this way it has been trying to hijack world trade with its "competition", "rules-based order" and "de-risk decoupling".

What the US has done has seriously undermined international trade rules and the global economic and trade order, posing a huge threat to the stability of the global industry chains and supply chains. It is not only China but the rest of the world that is being victimized by the US' economic coercion.

Despite this, neither the outcries of the US' allies nor Yellen's warning seems likely to prompt the administration to change its shortsighted China policy. They will only spur it to adopt more catchwords such as "de-risking" to cover up the coercive, bullying, divisive and suppressive nature of its practices.

The Joe Biden administration should take the visit to China by its secretary of state on Sunday and Monday as an opportunity to commit to real actions that match its professed desire to cooperate with China. If instead it views its top diplomat's long-gestating visit as another opportunity to set up its soap box, the odds of Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit having any positive outcomes will not be very high. If that is the case, the possibility of setting bilateral relations on a more upbeat trajectory will have been wasted.