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Senior US and Chinese officials are scheduled to hold talks next week, the first high-level personal meeting since President Biden took office on January 20.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will meet with their Chinese counterparts in Alaska on March 18 and 19.
And the Secretary of State of the United States, Anthony Blinken, announced, this Wednesday, that he will make a stopover on March 18 in Anchorage upon his return from his first trip abroad, which will take him to Japan and South Korea with the aim of strengthening America’s alliances with China. .
Each side will have time to set its priorities and cover a number of divisive issues, according to the Wall Street Journal.
After the US Secretary of State described China last week as the greatest geopolitical challenge of the 21st century, Sullivan will join him, National Security Advisor, to meet with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the prominent diplomat. Chinese Yang Jiechi, in Alaska’s largest city bordering the Pacific Ocean.
“This is an important opportunity for us to express in very frank terms the many concerns we have about Beijing’s actions and behavior that challenge the security, prosperity and values of the United States,” Blinken said in his speech to the House of Representatives. Representatives of the United States. of the Foreign Relations Committee of Representatives, adding that “the talks will also explore areas of cooperation.”
The newspaper quoted a senior US administration official as saying that discussions between officials from the two countries will include the Corona pandemic, climate change, China’s position on Hong Kong and pressure on Taiwan, and the “no economic embargo. announced “imposed by China on Australia. .
The official said the United States will also discuss Chinese practices that are considered to harm American workers and farmers, as well as the theft of intellectual property and human rights.
Blinken announced on Twitter that he wanted to focus on issues on which Washington has deep disagreements with Beijing.
Relations deteriorated during the era of former President Donald Trump, and the two countries have clashed in recent months on most issues, from the epidemic crisis through trade and Beijing’s role in the South China Sea to the human rights file in which Washington accuses China of compromising. crimes against Uighur Muslims and depriving Hong Kong of its autonomy and democracy.
The last bilateral meeting dates back to June, during the Trump presidency, when former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a meeting on the Huawei crisis with Yang Jiechi, without resulting in an easing of tension between the two major world powers. .
Trump and Pompeo were involved in an all-out confrontation in a near-cold war with China. The result was the emergence of a crisis unprecedented since the establishment of bilateral relations in the 1970s.
Blinken believed that the former Republican president was right to be strict, but the new Democratic team wants to coordinate more Washington’s positions with its allies, as well as cooperate with China on the challenges facing the world such as the Corona virus and the climate.
In a speech last week, he said that China is the only country with economic, diplomatic, military and technological power that would seriously threaten the stable and open international system.
He promised that relations with Beijing will be a mixture of rivalry when healthy, cooperation when possible and hostility when necessary.
In a show of his desire to address the Chinese from a position of strength, that is, with the support of the United States allies, Blinken anticipates the meeting in Alaska by visiting Tokyo and Seoul, accompanied by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, according to the US State Department announced on Wednesday.
This is his first overseas tour. Austin will also visit India.
This tour will take place as a result of a videoconference that the president of the United States will hold with the prime ministers of Australia, India and Japan, in the first summit in which the Democratic president will participate in the framework of this quadripartite alliance (Quad) with the aim of establishing a balance with China.
The US strategy toward North Korea, which Biden’s team is reconsidering, will be at the center of the talks.
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