“China is the only country with the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power that seriously challenges the stable and open international system – all the rules, values and relationships that make the world work the way we want it to,” Blinken said. set to say, according to excerpts from his speech previously shared with reporters.
Most of Blinken’s speech, at least according to the excerpts, consists of promises made repeatedly during the 2020 presidential campaign and since Biden won the November election.
These include promising to end the coronavirus pandemic; to make climate change a major focus; to elevate diplomacy while retaining military supremacy; to show global leadership while also collaborating with foreign allies; to invest in technology; to improve the US immigration system; to fight corruption; and to stand up for human rights.
Blinken will admit that the world today is different from 2017, when Donald Trump took over as president, or even from 2009, when many current officials of the Biden administration worked for then-president Barack Obama.
“We’re not just going where we left off. We look at the world with fresh eyes, ”Blinken is expected to say.
This includes more consideration of the ways in which foreign policy, domestic policy and trade issues are intertwined. The Biden government will influence American workers abroad, Blinken will promise.
“Some of us have previously advocated for free trade agreements because we believed that Americans would largely share in the economic gains and that these transactions would shape the world economy the way we wanted,” Blinken says. ‘But we have not done enough to enforce agreements that were already in the books or to fully benefit more workers and small businesses. And we did not deal with the fact that government programs that were meant to alleviate trade-related pain were not nearly good enough. ”
“Our approach will be different now,” he added. “We will fight for every American job and for the rights, protection and interests of all American workers.”
Blinken also plans to tackle another favorite Biden theme: the need to strengthen democracy, as the concept is threatened.
“The more we and all democracies can show the world what we can deliver – not only for our people, but also for each other – the more we can refute the lie that authoritarian countries like to tell – that it is better for them to meet each other. people’s fundamental needs and hopes, ”he says.
The excerpts do not specifically mention the January 6 uprising at the U.S. Capitol, but Blinken nonetheless implies that work on democracy begins at home, saying the U.S. should lead by example.
However, he rejects some American attempts to bring about democracy abroad.
“We will not promote democracy through costly military interventions or through attempts to overthrow authoritarian regimes by force,” he said. ‘We’ve tried this tactic in the past. Either way, they did not work. They gave “promotion of democracy” a bad name, and they lost the trust of the American people. ‘