Secretary of State Tony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will meet next week with their counterparts Wang Yi and Yang Jiechi in Alaska, Anchorage, Alaska. The meeting will be held in Alaska to allow Blinken to attend the meeting on his way back from his trip to Japan and South Korea, a statement from the department said. It also allows Chinese officials to give the impression at home that they are not traveling to the US, officials said, as a visit to Washington or elsewhere in the US would attract more attention, according to two people familiar with the plans.
The meeting comes amid a deep tension in relations between the two largest economies in the world. Biden has highlighted economic and military issues and mentioned potential areas of cooperation, including climate change and nuclear proliferation, while calling on China on a range of issues related to the sham use of technology, trade practices and human rights violations.
Blinken said at a congressional hearing that he would raise the Biden government’s “many concerns” about China’s behavior.
“This is an important opportunity for us to very clearly set out the many concerns we have about Beijing’s actions and behaviors that challenge the security, prosperity and values of the United States and our partners and allies.” during a hearing Wednesday afternoon before the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Both the State Department and the National Security Council did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Earlier Wednesday, the State Department announced that Blinken would travel to Tokyo and Seoul next week for 2 + 2 talks with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
State Department spokesman Ned Price did not want to confirm that a meeting would be requested during a department’s briefing on Tuesday.
“We have no meetings to announce at the moment, but we know what we need to do to involve China. We know what we will do to involve China. And we have started some of the important work,” he said. . .
The Biden government is planning a comprehensive review of the Trump administration’s attitude toward China, including the suppression of unfair trade practices and antagonistic military activities in Asia, while pursuing a robust Indo-Pacific strategy. On defense issues, the Department of Defense has also set up a task force focused on the U.S. strategy toward China.
Last month, Biden spoke by telephone with Chinese President Xi Jinping on a range of issues and ‘underlined his fundamental concerns about Beijing’s coercive and unfair economic practices, repression in Hong Kong, human rights violations in Xinjiang and increasingly assertive action in the region. , also to Taiwan, ‘according to a senior administration official.
But at the beginning of Biden’s presidency, there are several issues that weigh on the relationship.
The Biden administration endorsed a decision by the Trump administration that China had committed genocide in Xinjiang, which became furious in Beijing, denying the allegations.
It is also said that the Trump administration will for the time being remain the bruise tariffs imposed on Chinese goods.
But Biden administration officials also say they have found “deep problems” with the way the Trump administration has approached competition with China, and that is one of the issues they are now reviewing as part of a broader China policy.
CNN’s Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.