December 17, 2021

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken awkwardly cut short his Southeast Asia tour on Wednesday after a journalist traveling in his delegation tested positive for the coronavirus. Under the grave situation that more than 50 million COVID-19 cases have been recorded in the US, over 800,000 deaths and another potential surge in infections due to colder weather and the highly transmissible Omicron variant, Blinken was shuttling among several Southeast Asian countries with the purpose to counter China. 

Besides spreading a political virus, he and his delegation have posed a real threat of spreading the coronavirus to the host countries. Thank God, many Chinese netizens thought, they won't come to the Beijing Winter Olympics next February. 

Blinken started his Southeast Asia visit in a high-profile way. When delivering a speech in Indonesia, the first stop of his tour, Blinken spared no efforts to propagate so-called US commitments to security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region. He said the US defends the "rules-based order" while accusing China of engaging in "aggressive actions" in the region. He claimed that both regional countries and the US want China to change. The New York Times commented that Blinken's main message was that "the US is a better bet as a partner than China."

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