Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met on July 9 at a G-20 Foreign Ministers Meeting in Bali, Indonesia. They held lengthy discussions—but all subsequent indications suggest that no substantive progress was made on each sides’ concerns. Nonetheless, some consolation can be taken that such an exchange occurred at all.

U.S. announcements and actions show some new approaches. In short, trade plays second fiddle to the White House’s strategic objectives — meaning that commercial interests will be sacrificed whenever Washington has need. Trade with China is viewed through a geopolitical lens.

At the recent meeting in Luxembourg between China and the United States, the PRC emphasized two bedrock interests — Taiwan and the broader Asia-Pacific. America has been shifting its approach on both fronts. If it does not dial back its confrontational attitude, prosperity and peace in the region will not be attained.

The dominant narrative on the Chinese side is that this strategic competition between the two countries reflects the struggles for power, institutions, and perceptions, which will last throughout the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. In general, it is thus believed that competition and struggle have been adopted as key words for both Washington and Beijing in managing their relations.

A nation that seeks to maximize its own interests through containment, confrontation, closure, exclusivity or even the use of force runs against the will of the world, and Blinken failed to break that old mold. His words remain out of step with the direction of mankind.

Heightened U.S. military deployments on the Korean Peninsula will only exacerbate the regional security dilemma that affects China, Russia and the DPRK. Meanwhile, exclusivity between the United States and ROK in some trade sectors will be hard to pull off.

While U.S. President Joe Biden’s Asia trip didn’t include China, Secretary of State Antony Blinken filled in some of the missing pieces in the puzzle of America’s Indo-Pacific diplomacy. His recent speech can be seen as a prelude to America’s long-delayed national security strategy.

Antony Blinken may have coined the term “asymmetric decoupling” in his recent speech on the Biden administration’s China policy. The formerly abstract term seems to be the perfect way to describe China’s goal of becoming independent from the West while increasing the West’s dependence on China, a strategy that dates back to Emperor Qianlong’s time.

The Biden administration’s leadership failure is the net effect of Capitol Hill’s revolving door politics. The White House is not in charge. The Big Defense is.

The United States does not rule out cooperation with China on particular issues, but the prominence of cooperation in principle has dropped significantly. Indications are that areas of possible cooperation are narrowing and the difficulty is increasing.