WASHINGTON (AP) – US and China to face new test in increasingly troubled relations when senior officials from both countries meet in Alaska.
The ties between the world’s two largest economies have been severed for years, and the Biden administration has not yet signaled that it is ready or willing to retire to difficult positions. taken under President Donald Trump. China has also not signaled that it is ready to ease the pressure it has brought. Thus, the scenario is ready for a controversial first face-to-face meeting on Thursday.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will meet with China’s top two diplomats, State Councilor Wang Yi and Chinese Communist Party Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, in Anchorage, Alaska. Difficult discussions on trade, human rights in Tibet, Hong Kong, western China’s Xinjiang region, Taiwan, Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea and the coronavirus pandemic are anticipated.
No agreements are expected.
“This is truly a unique meeting,” a senior government official said. “This is not the resumption of a certain dialogue mechanism or the beginning of a dialogue process.” The official informed the reporters before the meeting on condition of anonymity.
Blinken will attend the meeting just from Japan and South Korea, where he and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin were promoting the Biden administration’s commitment to its Asian allies.
Just one day before the hearing, Blinken announced new sanctions against officials over China’s crackdown on pro-democracy lawyers in Hong Kong. In response, the Chinese intensified their rhetoric by opposing US interference in home affairs.
China, not unexpectedly, has criticized US criticism of giving a pro-Beijing committee the power to appoint more Hong Kong lawmakers, which reduces the proportion of those directly elected and ensures that only those determined to be truly loyal to Beijing to run for office – the effective exclusion of opposition people from the political process.
The imposition of sanctions “fully exposes the sinister intention of the US side to interfere in China’s internal affairs, disrupt Hong Kong and obstruct China’s stability and development,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday. Zhao Lijian.
The White House has set low expectations for the meeting of Blinken and Sullivan, which officials say will be an initial opportunity to address the intense disagreements.
The senior government official described the talks as a chance for the two sides to “take stock” of the relationship. The official said that the two sides will not make a joint statement after the meeting and that they do not expect major announcements from the talks.
China’s ambassador to the United States also downplayed expectations for the meeting in Alaska in comments to Chinese media on Wednesday, while hoping it will pave the way for better communication.
“Of course, we do not expect a round of dialogue to resolve all issues between China and the United States, and we do not have high hopes,” Cui Tiankai said in a transcript of his comments posted on the embassy’s website.
“My wish is that this can be a beginning and that the two sides can start a process of dialogue that is sincere, constructive and realistic,” Cui said. “If we can do that, I think this exchange will be successful.”
Blinken, in Japan, before heading to South Korea and Alaska, said the United States “will push back, if necessary, when China uses coercion or aggression to let go.”
“The relationship with China is very complex,” he said. “It has contradictory aspects; has competitive aspects; has aspects of cooperation. But the common denominator in the relationship with each of them is to make sure that we approach China from a position of strength, and this force begins with our alliance, with our solidarity, because it is truly a unique asset that we have. and China does not “t.”
The Chinese do not back down.
On Wednesday, at the United Nations, they broke the US human rights record, citing what they called US failures against COVID-19, which cost “hundreds of thousands of lives”, as well as racial discrimination, police brutality and a “bad past”. of genocide ”. Jiang Duan, an adviser to the Chinese mission in Geneva, voiced his criticism at the end of the examination of the US rights file at the UN Human Rights Council.
The administration held a series of talks with Pacific allies, including Biden’s virtual summit with Quad leaders – Australia, India, Japan and the United States – before engaging in high-level talks with China.
Trump had taken pride in forging what he saw as a strong relationship with Xi Jinping. But the relationship disintegrated after the coronavirus pandemic spread from Wuhan province to the rest of the world and triggered an economic and public health disaster.
In addition to pushing back China’s aggression in the Indo-Pacific and its human rights records, Biden faces other thorny issues in the relationship.
But so far, he has refused to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs imposed by Trump against China or lift bans on Chinese applications.
However, Biden is seeking China’s cooperation to put pressure on North Korean Kim Jong Un on his nation’s nuclear program.
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Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani in Washington, Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Zen Soo in Hong Kong contributed to this report.