“I think they need to be very cautious about that,” Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, D-Md., a senior Foreign Relations Committee member, said during a recent interview about Saudi officials expected to soon begin sending investment dollars for Iranian projects. “We want to make sure that there’s not additional available capital for Iran pursuing its nefarious activities, and funds become fungible.”
Asked about China’s role as broker, Blinken noted that Chinese officials merely hosted its announcement. But he also called Beijing’s role “a good thing,” adding: “I think it’s valuable that countries, where they can, take action, take responsibility for advancing security, for advancing peaceful relations.”
As some U.S. lawmakers continue warning about the possibility China might invade Taiwan, Biden and Blinken have never approached those members’ level of alarm. At least not publicly.
In fact, America’s top diplomats often sound like the Asia Society’s Jessica Chen Weiss, a former adviser to top State Department policy planners. She contends “there is little evidence that Chinese leaders see a closing window for action,” adding: “Such fears appear to be driven more by Washington’s assessments of its own military vulnerabilities than by Beijing’s risk-reward calculus.”
“Historically, Chinese leaders have not started wars to divert attention from domestic challenges, and they continue to favor using measures short of conflict to achieve their objectives,” Chen Weiss added. “The hard but crucial task for U.S. policymakers is to thread the needle between deterrence and provocation.”
