US, China rarely meet face-to-face meeting of Biden administration

Top US and Chinese officials offered different views of the world on 18 March as the two sides were face to face after President Joe Biden took office for the first time.

In remarks unusually pointed to a tainted diplomatic meeting, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the Chinese Communist Party’s head of foreign affairs Yang Jiechi targeted each other’s countries’ policies at the start of two days of talks in Alaska.

The controversial tone of his public comments suggested that private discussion would be even more rocky.

The meetings in Anchorage were a new test in the increasingly troubled relations between the two countries, which range from trade to human rights in Tibet, Hong Kong and China’s western Xinjiang region, as well as about Taiwan, China’s persistence in the south. In China Sea and Coronavirus Pandemic.

Mr. Blinken said that Mr. Biden’s administration is united with his colleagues in China’s growing totalitarianism and outspokenness at home and abroad. Mr. Yang then unloaded a list of Chinese complaints about the US and accused Washington of criticizing Beijing on human rights and other issues.

“Each of these actions threatens a rule-based order that maintains global stability,” Mr. Blinken said of China’s actions in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan and cyber attacks on the United States and economic coercion against American allies Said about “That is why they are not just internal matters, and why we feel an obligation to raise these issues today.” Mr. Yang responded that the US sought to shut down its own version of democracy at a time when the United States had robbed itself of domestic discontent. He also accused the US of failing to deal with its own human rights problems and spoke to Mr. Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and other US officials on issues he called “indulgent”.

“There is no way to strangle China,” he said.

US-China relations have been torn for years, and the Biden administration has not yet indicated whether it is ready to take a tough stand under Donald Trump.

Just a day before the meeting, Mr. Blinken announced new restrictions on pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong over Beijing’s ban. In response, China advanced its rhetoric, opposing American intervention in domestic affairs.

Mr. Trump was proud to understand what he saw as a strong relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. But after the coronovirus epidemic spread across the world from Wuhan province, the relationship disintegrated and sparked a public health and economic disaster.