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ANCHORAGE, Alaska: China’s actions “threaten the rule-based order that maintains global stability,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday (March 18) at the opening of a two-day meeting. with their Chinese counterparts in Alaska.
The US side “will discuss our deep concerns with China’s actions, including Xinjiang,” where Washington has accused Beijing of “genocide” against Uighur Muslims, Blinken said at the Anchorage summit with the Chinese Communist Party’s top diplomatic official. Yang Jiechi, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
He added that there would be dialogue on “Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyber attacks on the United States, economic coercion towards our allies.”
President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan added that the United States did not want a conflict with China, but welcomed stiff competition with its strategic rival.
“And we will always uphold our principles for our people and our friends,” Sullivan warned.
The US delegation led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, flanked by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, clashes with their Chinese counterparts at the opening session of the US-China talks at the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage, Alaska, on March 18, 2021. (Photo: AFP / Frederic J BROWN)
Yang responded with a 15-minute speech in Chinese while the US side waited for the translation, criticizing what he said was America’s fight for democracy and the poor treatment of minorities.
He threatened “firm action” against “US interference” and called for an end to the “Cold War mentality” that stunted the rivals’ relationship.
“China firmly opposes US interference in China’s internal affairs. We have expressed our strong opposition to such interference, and we will take strong action in response.
“What we have to do is abandon the Cold War mentality and the zero-sum game approach,” he said.
Yang added: “The United States uses its military force and financial hegemony to carry out a long-arm jurisdiction and repress other countries.
“It abuses the so-called notions of national security to obstruct normal commercial exchanges and incites some countries to attack China.”
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The Chinese delegation led by Yang Jiechi, director of the Central Foreign Relations Commission Office and Wang Yi, China’s Foreign Minister, speak with their American counterparts at the opening session of the US-China talks at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage, Alaska, on March 18. , 2021. (Photo: AFP / Frederic J BROWN)
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Seemingly surprised by Yang’s comments, Blinken kept reporters in the room so he could respond.
Sullivan said the United States does not seek a conflict with China, but will uphold its principles and friends. He touted the recent success of the US rover landing on Mars and said the country’s success was its ability to constantly reinvent itself.
Washington says the Asia tour ahead of the meeting with Chinese officials, as well as reaching out to Europe, India and other partners, shows how the United States has strengthened its hand to confront China since President Joe Biden took office in January. .
But the two sides appear prepared to agree on very little in the talks, which were expected to come to Anchorage evening and continue on Friday.
Even the state of the meeting has become a sticking point, with China insisting that it is a “strategic dialogue”, dating back to the bilateral mechanisms of years past. The US side has explicitly rejected it, calling it a single session.
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On the eve of the talks, the United States issued a series of actions targeting China, including a move to begin revoking Chinese telecommunications licenses, subpoenas against multiple Chinese information technology companies over national security concerns, and updated sanctions on China. for a reversal of democracy in Hong Kong.
“We expect a lot of these talks to be pretty, pretty tough,” a senior US administration official told reporters in Alaska before the meeting began.
Washington has said it is willing to work with China when it is in the interest of the United States, citing the fight against climate change and the coronavirus pandemic as examples. On Thursday, Blinken said Washington hoped China would use its influence over North Korea to persuade it to abandon its nuclear weapons.
China has indicated that it is scheduled to begin trials of two Canadians detained in December 2018 on espionage charges shortly after Canadian police detained Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of telecommunications equipment company Huawei Technologies, in a warrant for U.S.
China’s Foreign Ministry said the timing of the trials had nothing to do with the Anchorage talks.
Beijing has called for a reestablishment of ties, now at their lowest level in decades.
The largest group representing exiled Uighurs has written to Blinken urging him to demand that Beijing close its internment camps in the Xinjiang region, where UN experts say more than 1 million members of the ethnic group and other minorities Muslim women have been arrested.
Blinken had vowed to raise the issue, as his State Department had confirmed the Trump administration’s determination that Beijing was perpetrating genocide in Xinjiang, something that China vehemently denies.
Yang said that Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan are inseparable parts of the Chinese territory and that China firmly opposes US interference in its internal affairs. The United States should handle its own affairs and China its own, he said.
“The way we view the relationship with the United States is as President Xi Jinping said, that is, we hope we do not see confrontation, conflict, mutual respect and mutually beneficial cooperation with the United States.”
