布林肯国务卿谈拜登政府执政两周年和对中国即将进行的访问

布林肯国务卿于1月19日至20日访问伊利诺伊州芝加哥。在此期间，他在芝加哥大学政治学研究所参加了一场由该研究所创始人大卫·阿克塞尔罗德（David Axelrod）主持的对话，以此纪念研究所成立十周年。布林肯国务卿表示，能够纪念芝加哥大学政治学研究所十年来的服务与贡献，并就美国外交以及我们如何应对最严峻的全球挑战进行精彩对话，对此他感到荣幸。我们想与大家分享他们对话的部分片段，对话全文请见此处：
https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinkens-conversation-with-institute-of-politics-founding-director-david-axelrod/

关于拜登政府执政两周年

阿克塞尔罗德先生：这不仅是政治学研究所成立周年纪念，这也是拜登政府执政两周年。从你作为国务卿的角度，和我谈谈这两年的情况吧。哪些事进展顺利？哪些事是你最感到骄傲的？哪些事是你在回首过去时会说：“哎呀，我希望我们当时能做得更好一点，或者采取不同的做法？”

布林肯国务卿：我认为，两年过去了，至少从我的角度可以有把握地说，我们在世界上所处的位置比过去更好。我在担任这份工作时从拜登总统那里得到的第一个指示是：走出去，重振我们的联盟、我们的伙伴关系和我们在国际组织中的工作，使其重新焕发活力，并且重新参与进来。他如此坚决地让我们这样做，原因在于，如果你环顾所有这些问题——这些问题实际上正在对这个房间里的几乎每一个人的生活产生影响，无论是全球大流行病的影响，还是气候变化，无论是所有这些新技术——这些我们日常随身携带的东西——对我们的生活正在产生的影响，还是毒品、芬太尼危机，除非我们真正找到与其他国家合作、协调和共同努力的方法，否则我们无法有效地应对这些问题中的任何一个。

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他说的另一件事是：我们必须要走出去，不仅是为了与其他国家合作、协调，而是我们必须要走出去并坐在决策桌旁。

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重要的是这一点：我们在重新参与，我们没有袖手旁观，我们在又一次发挥领导作用，而且我们做这些是与其他国家一起，是以一种建立联盟来解决这些问题的方式。现在，世界上有非常多的扰动因素，我们必须找到有效应对他们的方式。

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最后一点：我们对另外一件事也做得很聪明。我们在国内的实力直接关系我们在世界各地的地位。当我们在对我们自己进行聪明的投资时——就像我们对基础设施的投资；就像我们制定《芯片与科学法案》来确保我们仍然是在美国这里制造半导体的领导者；就像我们制定我们所称的《通胀削减法案》，这是美国历史上为应对气候变化所投入的最大单笔投资——当我们在国内进行这些投资时，这其实也影响着我们在世界各地的地位。

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关于中国

阿克塞尔罗德先生：说到中国，你马上就要去中国访问了，中国不见得是一年前那个新冠大溃败之前的中国、他们的经济陷入停滞之前的中国。你希望在那里实现什么成果呢？

布林肯国务卿：在去年年末的时候，总统和习主席在本次二十国集团（G20）会议期间于巴厘岛举行的场边会晤上进行了非常良好、有建设性和时间很长的对话。我想短期内对我们来说最重要的一点是：这是我们在世界上所有的关系中最重要和最复杂的关系。我想许多其他的国家也会同样描述他们与中国的关系。我们在进行一场竞争。中国是一个领先的竞争者，而且在很多方面，他们对于世界应该是什么样子以及世界应往何处去的愿景与我们的愿景并不一样。但是竞争是一回事，冲突是另一回事。确保即便在我们进行非常激烈的竞争之时，我们可以避免竞争转变为冲突，这是强烈符合我们的利益的。做到这一点的方式之一是确保你们真的有良好的沟通渠道，你们有在谈话，你们有在互动，你们有在为这一关系竖立一些护栏，而且你们有在为这一关系设立底线。这是总统和习主席在巴厘岛所做的。这是他们要我继续开展的对话。

Secretary Blinken On the Two-Year Anniversary of the Biden Administration and upcoming visit to China

During his January 19-20 trip to Chicago, Illinois, Secretary Blinken participated in a moderated conversation at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics with its founder, David Axelrod, to help mark the Institute’s 10-year anniversary. Secretary Blinken expressed it was a privilege to commemorate the Institute’s ten years of service and contributions and have a great conversation about U.S. diplomacy and how we address our toughest global challenges. We wanted to share a few excerpts from their conversation – you can read the full conversation here : 
https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinkens-conversation-with-institute-of-politics-founding-director-david-axelrod/

On the Two-Year Anniversary of the Biden Administration 

MR . AXELROD: This isn’t just the anniversary of the founding of the Institute of Politics, but it’s also the two-year anniversary of the Biden administration. Talk to me about these two years from your perspective as Secretary of State. What has gone well? What are you proudest of? What are the things where you look back and say, “Gee, I wish we had done that a little bit better, or differently?”

SECRETARY BLINKEN: So I think two years in, what it’s safe to say from my perspective, at least, is that we’re in a better place in the world than we were. The first instruction that I got from President Biden on taking the job was: Get out there, re-energize, rejuvenate, re-engage our alliances, our partnerships, and our work in international organizations. And the reason he was so determined that we do that is that, if you’re looking around at all of the issues that are actually having an impact on the lives of pretty much everyone in this room – whether it’s the impact of a global pandemic; whether it’s climate change; whether it’s the effect that all of these new technologies are having on our lives, the stuff that we carry in our pockets every single day; whether it’s drugs, the fentanyl crisis – we can’t deal effectively with a single one of these issues unless we’re actually finding ways to cooperate and coordinate and work with other countries.

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The other thing he said was this: We have to be out there not only to cooperate and coordinate with other countries – but we have to be out there and at the table. 

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So the bottom line is this: We are re-engaged, we’re out there, we’re leading again, and we’re doing it with other countries in ways that are building coalitions to tackle these problems. Now, there are a huge number of disruptors out there, and we have to find ways to effectively address them. 

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Last thing is this: We’ve been really smart about something else. Our strength at home is directly tied to our standing around the world. When we’re making smart investments in ourselves – as we did with infrastructure; as we did with the CHIPS Act to make sure that we remain the leader in making semiconductors here in the United States; as we did with the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which is the biggest single investment made to deal with climate change in the history of this country – when we’re making those investments at home, it’s actually having an impact on our standing around the world. …

On China

MR .AXELROD: Talk about China, where – the China that you’re going to visit right now, not necessarily the same China from a year ago before the COVID debacle, before their economy was ground to a halt. What are you hoping to accomplish there?

SECRETARY BLINKEN: So the President and President Xi had a very good, constructive, long conversation in Bali on the margins of this G20 meeting toward the end of last year, and I think the most important thing in the immediate for us is this: This is the most consequential and complex relationship of any that we have in the world. I think many other countries could say the same about their relationship with China. We’re in a competition. China is a leading competitor, and in many ways, the vision that they have for what the world should be and where it should go is not the same as the one we have. But competition is one thing, conflict is another, and it’s strongly in our interest to make sure that even as we compete very vigorously, we avoid competition veering into conflict. One of the ways you do that is making sure that you actually have good lines of communication, that you’re talking, that you’re engaging, that you’re putting some guardrails on the relationship, and that you’re putting a floor underneath it. That’s what the President and President Xi were doing in Bali. That’s the conversation they asked me to continue.