China plans to ask US to reverse trump policy at Alaska meeting

American officials say the meeting is a way of filing American complaints about Chinese actions, such as reduced liberties in Hong Kong, naval expansion in the South China Sea, economic pressure on U.S. allies, intellectual property violations and cyber security incursions . The United States also plans to probe Chinese officials on ways in which the two countries can work together on issues such as climate change and global health.

China comes with a different agenda that has little overlap with Washington’s, a sign of how far the two sides are apart and how difficult it will be to repair the relationship.

Yang Jiechi, a member of the governing body of the Communist Party, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi plan to urge Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan to lift sanctions and restrictions on Chinese entities and individuals instituted by the Trump administration , said people with knowledge of the plans.

Chinese officials also plan to propose to reinstate regular high-level meetings between the two sides and schedule a virtual summit between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Biden in April, during a global climate change conference. The White House declined to comment on the prospect of such a meeting.

China’s broad agenda reflects a greater confidence in Beijing, which in the past has used high-level meetings primarily to react to US initiatives. “China feels it has the wind on its back, that the East is rising and the West is weakening,” said Daniel Russel, a former Obama State Department official.

The measures that China wants to reverse include limits on American sales to Chinese companies, such as telecommunications company Huawei Technologies Co. and chip maker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.

; visa restrictions for Communist Party members, Chinese students and state media journalists; and closing of the Chinese Consulate in Houston. Beijing retaliated in kind, targeting American entities and individuals with similar penalties.

If these restrictions are removed or relaxed, China would consider eliminating its own countermeasures, people with knowledge of Chinese plans said.

Mr. Yang and Mr. Wang plan to propose a new structure to establish recurring annual meetings between the two powers to resolve differences in the economic, commercial, security and other areas. The so-called strategic dialogue format was established during the George W. Bush administration and continued during the Obama years, when Mr. Blinken and Mr. Sullivan were senior foreign policy officials.

President Donald Trump abolished the mechanism because his advisers said China used it to tie Americans in endless discussions. The Biden government has so far shown no interest in reestablishing the negotiations.

A senior Biden government official downplayed expectations that the Alaskan meeting would lead to any deal. The official described it as a single meeting that did not portend “the resumption of a specific dialogue mechanism or the initiation of a dialogue process”.

Beijing may also not expect concrete results, said Russel, the former Obama official, who is now vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, a study center. Instead, the Chinese “will try to better understand where Americans are thinking the relationship is going and what might be possible,” he said.

So far, the Biden government has continued some of Trump’s policies, including on Tuesday expanding sanctions against Chinese officials who, he said, undermined Hong Kong’s autonomy from Beijing.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Commerce delivered subpoenas to several Chinese companies as part of the U.S. effort to target technology and services that could threaten national security.

The tariffs that the Trump administration imposed on Chinese products are not expected to be high on China’s Alaskan agenda, although Wang, the foreign minister, in a speech in February called for the removal of trade-related penalties.

China started looking for Biden’s advisors at the end of last year, although China’s Foreign Ministry said the suggestion for the Alaskan meeting came from Washington. “The US side has proposed to maintain this high-level strategic dialogue, which we consider significant,” the ministry told The Wall Street Journal. He did not elaborate, but said: “We hope that the two sides will be able to have a frank dialogue on issues of mutual interest.”

Chinese officials plan to propose the use of a virtual climate summit attended by global leaders on April 22, which is Earth Day, to schedule a meeting between Mr. Xi and Mr. Biden, people with knowledge of the plans said. Beijing. Both sides indicated that they are willing to work together to combat global warming and other climate-related issues, although the United States is concerned that China will try to use the climate issue to make the United States retreat in other areas.

The two leaders spoke once since the presidential election in the United States, a session that lasted two hours, according to Biden.

Chinese officials indicate that there is no room for compromise on sovereignty issues involving Hong Kong and Taiwan. Blinken, who will stop in Alaska on the way back from a trip to Japan and South Korea this week, fired volleys from Tokyo in China on Thursday because of both issues.

China also plans to propose that both countries create a “vaccine passport” to verify proof of immunization, according to people familiar with the plans. Chinese officials hope that this can help facilitate travel between the two countries.

It could also help China gain recognition for its home vaccines. In the past few days, some Chinese embassies have said they would facilitate visas for foreigners who have received Chinese vaccines.

Beijing’s broad agenda for the meeting shows the Chinese leadership’s growing confidence in the party-state system. China’s economy has resisted a trade war with the Trump administration and is recovering strongly, helped by its initial progress in controlling coronavirus infections. Xi, the most powerful Chinese leader in decades, is enjoying broad support from the Chinese public, Chinese officials say.

Still, Beijing is eager to overcome the turmoil in relations with the United States, which has affected business and investor confidence in the world’s second largest economy.

The Biden team also feels that it is in a strong position, having approved a $ 1.9 trillion economic aid package and having started working with allies in China and other economic issues, said senior government official Biden.

The symbolism of the meeting is important, said the official, who stressed the importance of having both the secretary of state and the national security adviser representing the United States. In the past, China has tried to capitalize on divisions between American representatives, the official said.

Having Messrs. Blinken and Sullivan in the session will make it clear, the official said, “There will be no daylight and that the games that China has played in the past, to divide us, or try to divide us, are simply not going to work here. “

The American side plans to deal with the economic pressure that China has placed on Australia by reducing imports after Canberra called for an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus. A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry this week attributed the tension to “Australia’s wrong words and actions on issues related to China’s sovereignty, security and development interests”.

The session will help each side better understand the other, said senior government official Biden. “It is about communicating the areas in which we intend to operate and understanding where our Chinese interlocutors are,” said the official.

Write to Lingling Wei at [email protected] and Bob Davis at [email protected]