White House Secretary of State Jen Psaki confirmed on Wednesday that the United States will host Chinese officials in Anchorage, Alaska, next week for the first substantial bilateral talks under President Biden.
The meeting will take place on March 18 or 19 with Secretary of State Tony Blinken and White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese officials, including Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
“It was important for us that the first meeting of this administration with Chinese officials take place on American soil and take place after we have met and consulted closely with partners and allies in both Asia and Europe.” , said Psaki during his daily press session.
“The meeting is an opportunity to address a wide range of issues, including those where we have deep disagreements,” Psaki said.
“We intend to discuss our expectations and be honest in explaining Beijing’s actions and behavior … and our concern about the challenges they pose to the security and values of the United States and our allies and partners.”
Psaki said that there will also be talk about the partnership with China.
“We are also talking about areas in which we can cooperate – of mutual interests. And we come to these discussions, of course, with clear eyes “, she said.
“The meeting also provides an opportunity to highlight how the United States will defend the rules-based international system and a free and open Indo-Pacific. As the President said, we are approaching our relationship with the Chinese from a position of strength, with our allies and partners. ”
Last month, Biden had an introductory phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping. To date, Biden has retained many of former President Donald Trump’s policies toward China. He did not relax tariffs on Chinese goods and did not relax sanctions against officials.
Trump claimed during the presidential campaign that China would “own” the United States if Biden won, in part because of his son Hunter Biden’s business in China.
As president, Trump initially cultivated a personal relationship with Xi and joked that he would like to become “president for life” as the communist leader had done.
But the bond worsened after Trump engaged in a trade war meant to force an agreement to reform economic policies. The Trump administration has also worked to persuade allies to ban Chinese telecommunications company Huawei from 5G infrastructure projects because of security concerns.
US-China relations declined last year during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump has authorized sanctions against Chinese officials for removing political autonomy from Hong Kong and for mistreating Uighur Muslims. He promised to “decouple” the US and China economically, in response to the deception in the early data on COVID-19.
Last month, Trump criticized Biden for joining the World Health Organization without insisting that China pay a larger share of WHO spending. Trump gave up the organization for accepting false Chinese data about COVID-19 before the virus spread and caused a devastating and deadly economic pandemic.