White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed on Wednesday that the United States will receive Chinese officials in Anchorage, Alaska, next week for the first substantial bilateral negotiations 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 government with Chinese officials was held on American soil and occurred after we met and consulted partners and allies in Asia and Europe,” said Psaki at his daily news conference.
“The meeting is an opportunity to address a wide range of issues, including those on which we have deep disagreements,” said Psaki.
“We intend to discuss our expectations and will be frank in explaining Beijing’s actions and behavior … and our concern for the challenges they pose to the security and values of the United States and our allies and partners.”
Psaki said he will also speak in partnership with China.
“We also talk about areas where we can cooperate – of mutual interests. And we are coming to these discussions, of course, with clear eyes, ”she said.
“The meeting also offers an opportunity to emphasize how the United States will defend the international rule-based system and a free and open Indo-Pacific. As the president said, we approach our relationship with the Chinese from a position of strength, in harmony with our allies and partners ”.
Biden had an introductory phone call last month with Chinese President Xi Jinping. So far, Biden has maintained many of former President Donald Trump’s policies toward China. He did not relax tariffs on Chinese products or sanctions against the authorities.
Trump said 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 a “lifelong president”, as the communist leader had done.
But the title went sour after Trump became involved in a trade war with the aim of forcing an agreement to reform economic policies. The Trump administration has also worked to convince allies to ban Chinese telecommunications company Huawei from 5G infrastructure projects for security reasons.
US-China relations plummeted last year during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump authorized sanctions against Chinese officials for eliminating Hong Kong’s political autonomy and for mistreating Uighur Muslims. He promised to “decouple” the US and China economically in response to the mistake in the first COVID-19 data.
Trump criticized Biden last month for rejoining the World Health Organization without insisting that China pay a larger share of WHO spending. Trump left the organization due to the acceptance of false Chinese data on COVID-19 before the virus spread and caused an economically ruinous and deadly pandemic.