WASHINGTON (AP) – The United States and China face a new test in their increasingly troubled relations when top officials from both countries meet in Alaska.
The ties between the two largest economies in the world have been torn for years and the Biden government has not yet indicated that it is ready or willing to return to the tough stance. taken under President Donald Trump. China also did not indicate that it was prepared to ease the pressure it exerted. So the stage for a controversial first meeting is Thursday.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will meet with China’s top two diplomats, State Councilor Wang Yi, and Chinese Communist Party leader Yang Jiechi in Anchorage, Alaska. Tough discussions are expected on trade, human rights in Tibet, Hong Kong, the western Xinjiang region of China, Taiwan, the Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea and the coronavirus pandemic.
No agreements are expected.
“It really is a one-time meeting,” a senior administration official said. “This is not the resumption of a particular dialogue mechanism or the beginning of a dialogue process.” The official informed reporters before the meeting about the condition of anonymity.
Blinken will attend the meeting, just from Japan and South Korea, where he and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have promoted the Biden government’s commitment to its allies in Asia.
Just a day before the meeting, Blinken announced new sanctions against officials over China’s violent opponents of pro-democracy in Hong Kong. In response, the Chinese intensified their rhetoric against US interference in domestic affairs.
China did not unexpectedly criticize the U.S. over the move to give a pro-Beijing committee power to appoint more of Hong Kong’s lawmakers, reducing the share of those directly elected and ensuring that only those who determined to be truly loyal to Beijing, to be allowed to present themselves – to effectively exclude opposition figures from the political process.
The imposition of sanctions “reveals the US party’s sinister intent to interfere in China’s domestic affairs, disrupt Hong Kong and impede China’s stability and development,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Wednesday. told reporters during a daily briefing.
The White House has set low expectations for the Blinken and Sullivan meeting, which officials say will be an initial opportunity to address intense disagreements.
The senior administration official described the talks as an opportunity for “scoping” in the relationship. The official said the two parties would not make a joint statement after the meeting, and that no major announcements were expected to come out of the talks.
The US ambassador to the US underestimated expectations for the Alaska meeting on Wednesday in comments to Chinese media, while expressing the hope that it would pave the way for better communication.
“Of course, we do not expect one issue of dialogue to solve all the problems between China and the US, and we do not expect too much,” Cui Tiankai said in a transcript of his comments posted on the embassy’s website .
“My wish is that this can be a start and that the two sides can start a dialogue process that is candid, constructive and realistic,” Cui said. “If we can achieve that, I think this exchange will be successful.”
Blinken, in Japan before going to South Korea and Alaska, said the U.S. would “push back if necessary if China used coercion or aggression to get its way.”
“The relationship with China is very complicated,” he said. “It has contradiction; it has competitive aspects; it has collaborative aspects. But the common denominator in dealing with each of them is to make sure that we approach China from a strong position, and that the power starts with our alliance, with our solidarity, because it is really a unique asset that we have and China does not. ”
The Chinese are not retreating.
At the United Nations on Wednesday, they broke the US human rights record, citing what they call US failures against COVID-19, which cost ‘hundreds of thousands of lives’, as well as racial discrimination, police brutality and an ‘evil past of genocide’. . Jiang Duan, an adviser to the Chinese mission in Geneva, voiced criticism at the end of an investigation into the US rights record at the UN Human Rights Council.
The government held a series of talks with allies in the Pacific, including Biden’s virtual summit with quad leaders – Australia, India, Japan and the United States – before embarking on high-level talks with China.
Trump was proud to forge what he saw as a strong relationship with Xi Jinping. But the relationship broke down after Wuhan province’s coronavirus pandemic spread around the world, triggering a public disaster and public health.
In addition to the fact that China’s aggression in the Indian Pacific and its human rights record are being pushed back, Biden faces other thorny issues in the relationship.
But so far, he has refused to repeal hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs that Trump has imposed on China or to ban Chinese apps.
However, Biden is seeking China’s cooperation to push North Korean Kim Jong Un over his country’s nuclear program.
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Associated Press authors Aamer Madhani in Washington, Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Zen Soo in Hong Kong contributed to this report.