China repositioning itself as US' geopolitical rival: Senator

China has repositioned itself as a geopolitical rival of the US, a top American Senator today said, expressing concern over Beijing's aggressive behaviour in the disputed South China Sea.
"We've reached a point now though where there's no denying the fact that China has positioned itself as a geopolitical rival to the United States. The calculated and incremental strategy on the part of Beijing to challenge US power is having real consequences for US interests and international norms in the Indo-Pacific and beyond," Senator Bob Corker Chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee said during a Congressional hearing.
Many experts, he noted, has opined that it is increasingly likely that Beijing will declare an air defence identification zone in the South China Sea.

"And China could undertake further destabilising actions if the international tribunal ruling as expected goes against Chinese interests," he said.
Corker also expressed concern over the lack of progress on a number of economic and trade related issues.
For more than four years, the US and China have been engaged in a trade war over solar panels and polysilicon imports and exports to make those panels, he said.

Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Antony Blinken, Deputy Secretary of State, reiterated that the ties with China is most "consequential" relationship.
Blinken said the relationship the Obama Administration has been working with China has paved the way for a landmark joint announcement on climate change that galvanised the international community reach a global climate agreement in Paris last December and signed it in New York just last week.

"From top to bottom the administration has worked to expand and deepen our diplomatic, military, economic and people to people ties with China. Since the president took office, our exports to China have nearly doubled.
"China's now the largest market for American made goods outside of North America and it's also one of the top markets for US agricultural exports and a large and growing market for US services," he said.
Blinken said while the United States and China share an interest in ensuring that North Korea does not obtain a nuclear weapons capability, the two do not always agreed on the best way to reach that objective.

Ranking Member Senator Benjamin Cardin alleged that China's continued reclamation activities in the South China Sea, violation of international law, the militarisation of the islands is a "clear attempt to bully its smaller neighbours and to clearly challenge the US" as a Pacific power in one of the most important zones, trade navigation zones in the world.
Blinken said the US has a profound national interest in the way the various claimant pursue their claims and anything that threatens freedom of navigation, that threatens the peaceful resolution of disputes or that undermines international law, including obligations, is a problem for it.

"In addition China is making it more difficult for us to carry out our own commitments and our own alliances. That is also a problem for us," Blinken said.
"China's actions are alienating virtually every country in the neighbourhood and they are looking to the US increasingly," Blinken said.
"So our engagement with those countries has reached, unprecedented levels and if you go down the list of countries in Southeast Asia, as well as in Northeast Asia, the relationship with our treaty allies as well as with emerging partners is deeper and stronger than it's been and in particular the cooperation on maritime security is greater than it's ever been," he said.