WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, will meet next week with two senior Chinese government officials, the Biden administration’s first personal diplomatic encounter with its main foreign rival.
In a statement on Wednesday, a State Department spokesman said Blinken and Sullivan will meet in Anchorage next Thursday with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his top diplomat, Yang Jiechi.
The meetings will follow visits by Mr Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III to Japan and South Korea next week, two major US allies who have strained relations with China and who hope to be consulted before a commitment as planned with Beijing.
“It was important for us that the first meeting of this government with Chinese officials was held on American soil and was after we met and consulted partners and allies in Asia and Europe,” said Jen Psaki, press secretary of the White House.
The Anchorage meeting will continue a cautious sizing between the world’s two biggest powers, one that has been underway since the Biden administration took office amid pledges to continue to a large extent the Trump administration’s firm stance on Beijing. Last week, a Blinken speech, as well as a new White House national security strategy document, identified China as the main nation-state threat to the United States.
In his speech, Mr. Blinken said that managing the relationship with China would be “the greatest geopolitical test of the 21st century” and called China the only country capable of “seriously challenging the stable and open international system”.
Biden spoke to China’s leader, Xi Jinping, last month, warning him that he intended to challenge China’s “coercive and unfair economic practices”, as well as its human rights record and its crackdown on Hong Kong, according to a White House summary of the call. But Biden also said he hopes to cooperate with Xi on issues like coronavirus, nuclear proliferation and climate change.
American officials have not described a specific agenda for the Anchorage meeting. Mr. Blinken said on Twitter that he hoped to involve the Chinese authorities “on a number of issues, including those on which we have deep disagreements.”
Blinken will stop in Alaska on his way back from Asia, his first foray outside Washington amid the coronavirus pandemic. Until now, Blinken, to his frustration, had been conducting diplomacy exclusively by telephone and video. Blinken was vaccinated, but officials cited the risks to others accompanying him as a reason for his limited travel so far.
He will leave Washington on Monday, with planned stops in Tokyo and Seoul before heading to Anchorage. Austin, who will be traveling on a separate plane, will leave Seoul for meetings with officials in India, the Department of Defense said.
Witnessing on Wednesday to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Blinken said the meeting would be an opportunity “to expose in very frank terms the many concerns we have about Beijing’s actions and behavior”, including the effects of commercial practices. about American workers.
But he said he and Sullivan would also “explore whether there are other avenues of cooperation” with Beijing.
Mr. Blinken added that the meeting was not the start of a strategic dialogue and that the follow-up meetings would depend on “tangible progress and tangible results” in Washington’s concerns.
The Alaska meeting will be the first known personal diplomatic contact between US and Chinese diplomats since June, when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the time had a tense and largely fruitless meeting with Yang in Hawaii.
On Friday, Biden will meet virtually the leaders of Australia, Japan and India, a group collectively known as “the Quad”, and whose implicit objective is to verify Chinese economic and military influence in Asia.
The strategy paper released by the White House last week and overseen by Sullivan, outlined plans to rebuild the United States’ economy, democracy and foreign alliances to establish a “position of strength” against rivals like Russia and China.
“By restoring America’s credibility and reaffirming future-oriented global leadership, we will ensure that America, not China, sets the international agenda,” says the White House plan.
But Biden has been cautious so far and has yet to take any major political action on China. Even President Donald J. Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports are under review, Sullivan said last week. And the Pentagon is conducting a month-long review of its policies for China and the force’s stance in Asia.
Chinese officials have publicly said that they do not seek confrontation with the United States or global dominance, and that the Trump administration is to blame for a relationship between Washington and Beijing that analysts say is at its lowest point in decades.
Eric Schmitt contributed reports.