ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Leading American and Chinese officials offered totally different views of each other and the world on Thursday, when the two sides met face-to-face for the first time since President Joe Biden took office.
In public comments unusually directed to a serious diplomatic meeting, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the head of foreign affairs of the Chinese Communist Party, Yang Jiechi, focused on each other’s policies at the beginning of two days of negotiations in Alaska. The contentious tone of his public comments suggested that private discussions would be even more complicated.
The meetings in Anchorage were a new test of the increasingly troubled relations between the two countries, which are at odds over a range of issues, from trade to human rights in Tibet, Hong Kong and China’s western Xinjiang region, as well as on Taiwan, China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea and the coronavirus pandemic.
Blinken said the Biden government is united with its allies to fight China’s growing authoritarianism and assertiveness at home and abroad. Yang then released a list of Chinese complaints about the United States and accused Washington of hypocrisy for criticizing Beijing on human rights and other issues.
“Each of these actions threatens the rule-based order that maintains global stability,” Blinken said of China’s actions in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and of cyber attacks on the United States and economic coercion against its allies. “That is why they are not merely internal affairs, and that is why we feel an obligation to raise these issues here today.”
National security adviser Jake Sullivan has broadened criticism, saying that China has undertaken an “attack on basic values”.
“We are not looking for conflict, but we are in for fierce competition,” he said.
Yang responded angrily by demanding that the United States stop promoting its own version of democracy at a time when the United States itself was disturbed by internal discontent. He also accused the United States of not dealing with its own human rights problems and questioned what it said was “condescension” by Blinken, Sullivan and other American officials.
“We believe it is important for the United States to change its own image and to stop promoting its own democracy in the rest of the world,” he said. “Many people in the United States, in fact, have little confidence in America’s democracy.”
“China will not accept unjustified accusations on the US side,” he said, adding that recent developments have plunged relations “into a period of unprecedented hardship” that “has damaged the interests of our two peoples”.
“There is no way to strangle China,” he said.
Blinken seemed uncomfortable with the content and length of the comments, which lasted more than 15 minutes. He said that his impressions of conversations with world leaders and his recently concluded trip to Japan and South Korea were totally different from the Chinese position.
“I am hearing profound satisfaction that the United States is back, that we are re-engaged,” replied Blinken. “I am also hearing deep concern about some of the actions that your government is taking.”
Highlighting the animosity, the State Department criticized the Chinese delegation for violating an agreed two-minute time limit for opening statements and suggested that “it seemed (ed) to have arrived with the intention of arrogance, with a focus on public and dramatic theater in instead of substance. “
“America’s approach will be underpinned by confidence in our relationship with Beijing – which we are doing in a position of strength – although we have the humility to know that we are a country that strives eternally to become a more perfect union,” he said.
Ties between the U.S. and China have been severed for years, and the Biden government has yet to show signs of being ready or willing to back down from the hard-line positions taken under Donald Trump.
The day before the meeting, Blinken announced new sanctions against Beijing’s crackdown on democracy advocates in Hong Kong. In response, China intensified its rhetoric by opposing US interference in domestic affairs and complained directly about it.
“Is this a decision by the United States to try to gain an advantage in dealing with China?” Asked State Counselor Wang Yi. “Certainly this was miscalculated and just reflects the vulnerability and weakness within the United States and it is not going to upset China’s position or resolve these issues.”
Trump was proud to establish what he considered a strong relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. But the relationship disintegrated after the coronavirus pandemic spread from Wuhan province to the world and unleashed an economic and public health disaster.
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Lee reported from Washington.