WASHINGTON: China wants to stabilise relations with the United States in the short term, as it faces domestic economic challenges and push back to its assertive diplomacy in Asia, the White House Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell said last month. The biggest show of public discontent since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, is the result of widespread protests over China's strict COVID 19 prevention measures. The rules had contributed to a slowing economy, but the recent easing of restrictions has created fresh concerns that the virus could soon run wild.
Campbell said at an Aspen Security Forum event in Washington that China had antagonised many of its neighbors and that they meant it was interested in more predictable ties with Washington in the short term. Campbell mentioned Chinese territorial disputes with Japan and India because of the issues that those issues had, coupled with the fact that China had antagonised many of its neighbors.
In many respects, I think they recognize that that has backfired. The Chinese need an openly hostile relationship with the United States right now, and all of that suggests that it's the last thing that the Chinese need right now. They want to have a degree of predictability and stability, and we want that as well, Campbell said.