US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a visit by US President Joe Biden to the State Department in Washington, February 4, 2021.
Tom Brenner | Reuters
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called on China to condemn the military coup in Myanmar and has warned Beijing that Washington will work with its allies to hold the People’s Republic accountable for what he described as its efforts to threaten international stability, with especially in the Taiwan Strait.
Blinken spoke with his counterpart Secretary of State Yang Jiechi late Friday in the first conversation between senior US and Chinese officials since President Joe Biden took office. The US top diplomat emphasized human rights in the call, while Yang called on Washington to respect China’s sovereignty.
“Secretary Blinken stressed that the United States will continue to champion human rights and democratic values, including in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, and urged China to join the international community to condemn the military coup in Burma,” said Ned. Price said in a statement.
The controversial appeal between the top diplomats in Washington and Beijing shows that relations between the two largest economies in the world are unlikely to improve under the Biden administration. Yang told the US not to interfere in China’s internal affairs in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet. Yang warned Blinken that any attempt to defame China would fail.
Tensions between the US and China reached a boiling point under the Trump administration. While President Joe Biden is overhauling some Trump-era foreign policy decisions, he is unlikely to reverse most of the previous administration’s policy toward China. Biden has already said he will not immediately remove the hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs imposed by Trump on Chinese exports, as the new administration also wants to take a harsh approach to trade.
The day before Biden was inaugurated, the Trump administration labeled the repression of Uyghur Muslims in China’s western Xinjiang province as “genocide and crimes against humanity.” As soon as Trump left office, Beijing imposed sanctions on former government officials, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and trade adviser Peter Navarro.
The Biden administration will maintain the designation genocide, Biden’s candidate for UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said at her confirmation hearing. Biden had condemned China’s actions in Xinjiang as genocide during his presidential campaign.
The White House is already facing its first major international focal point with China after the military in Myanmar overthrew and detained the country’s civilian leadership earlier this month.
The US has warned it will take action against those responsible for the coup if it does not release detained civilian leadership and maintain the country’s democratic transition. China, for its part, did not condemn the coup and instead called for a solution to the crisis under the country’s constitution.
Tensions are also mounting over Taiwan. Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan, which has self-government under the umbrella of US security guarantees. Days after Biden’s inauguration, China sent warplanes into the Taiwan Strait, with conviction from Washington. On Thursday, a US Navy warship sailed through the strait for the first time since Biden took office.
The Secretary reaffirmed that the United States will work with its allies and partners to defend our shared values and interests to hold the PRC accountable for its efforts to bring stability in the Indo-Pacific, including across the Taiwan Strait, and threaten its undermining of the rules-based international system, ” State Department spokesman Price said during Blinken’s appeal on Friday.
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