China’s economic coercion evokes greater scrutiny and resentment, senior US officials say

Washington’s global network of allies said to offer moral support, supply-chain diversion strategies and new markets when Beijing takes aim

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Nicholas Burns, US ambassador to China, has warned against a world that heavily depends on China for trade and technologies. Photo: AP

Robert Delaneyin WashingtonandMark Magnierin New York

Published: 5:13am, 6 Sep 2024Updated: 5:30am, 7 Sep 2024

Two senior officials in US President Joe Biden’s administration on Thursday slammed Beijing for coercive behaviour globally on the economic, defence and other fronts, and discussed their wide-ranging efforts to push back.

America’s ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, highlighted “very ill-advised efforts by the government of China to intimidate the Philippines at Second Thomas Shoal, at Sabina Shoal, in an incident at Scarborough Shoal, just to name three incidents over the last month or so”.

“And we’ve used our diplomatic channels, certainly I have done so,” he said in an FP Live interview from Beijing. “Secretary [Antony] Blinken did when he was here a couple of months ago, and Jake Sullivan did last week to tell the Chinese leadership very directly, we have an ironclad commitment to defend the Philippines.”

Echoing Burns, Jose Fernandez, the State Department’s undersecretary for economic growth, energy and the environment, said China was facing greater scrutiny and resistance when it wielded its sizeable trade and geopolitical leverage to coerce smaller countries economically, even as it remained highly adept at pressure tactics.

Speaking at a separate event on Thursday, Fernandez stopped short of declaring victory in efforts to counter China’s economic muscle-flexing. But he said Washington had created a playbook to help countries that came under pressure.