The meeting between senior U.S. and Chinese diplomats in Alaska a week ago opened with a fierce exchange of rhetoric. Although Chinese officials told reporters after the meeting that it was “frank, constructive and helpful,” several members of Congress from both parties have said that the U.S. and China “will not go back to the way things used to be. Some lawmakers also predicted that the meeting marked the beginning of a “long and arduous engagement” between the two countries.
Early in the talks, several media reports speculated that even if U.S. and Chinese officials sat down face-to-face, there would be no breakthrough in diplomatic relations between the two countries, but in the end, the two sides showed a level of tit-for-tat that was unexpected.
Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the CPC Central Committee, made a number of “scolding” remarks during the meeting that departed from diplomatic tradition and etiquette, clearly reflecting the hard-line attitude of the CPC government toward the current international community. “You (the United States) are not qualified to say in front of China that you talk to China from a position of strength,” “The Chinese don’t eat this,” and “Have we suffered less from the foreigners? ” and other statements were hailed as golden by the Chinese Communist Party media, and also set off a wave of nationalist sentiment within China’s online firewall.
Republican leader: CCP rewards ‘War Wolf diplomacy’, stupidity
Apparently, however, such an attitude did not enjoy the same praise in the international community after crossing the firewall. The leader of the U.S. Congressional Intelligence Committee directly described Beijing‘s “war wolf diplomacy” as “foolish.
Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)
“They usually do that in private meetings, and this is probably the first Time I’ve seen that kind of attitude in a public meeting,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told the Voice of America that this is the line that the current Chinese Communist Party foreign policy is taking, and that he was not surprised by the Chinese attitude and rhetoric.
“You’ve seen this in their war-wolf diplomacy, stupidity. I think it’s a rewarding behavior for them, and that’s why you see him doing that. Honestly, that’s the way they’ve treated some other countries, more aggressively in private, even publicly threatening not to provide vaccines and other things like that to those countries,” Rubio continued.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), also a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also told VOA that this was another glimpse of Beijing’s “battle wolf diplomacy” through the media, but that he was not surprised that Communist diplomats were behaving this way.
I think now the Chinese government is much bolder and very aggressive,” Cornyn said. But I don’t think it’s surprising, not to anyone who’s concerned about the South China Sea, or the Chinese Communist Party’s cyber activities or espionage in the United States.”
The much-anticipated global meeting of top U.S. and Chinese officials took place last week in Alaska, the closest U.S. geographic location to Asian countries. Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican U.S. senator from Alaska, was in Anchorage during the two-day meeting between U.S. and Chinese officials last week. Immediately after the meeting, he spoke to U.S. officials in attendance to learn about the talks with Chinese Communist Party officials.
Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK)
“I think this is a realistic start to the relationship, and it’s something that we need, and we need to make a realistic assessment of our differences and challenges with each other,” Sullivan shared earlier this week during a videoconference appearance at the Atlantic Council.
“I would say there’s no question that the atmosphere in that meeting was as cold as it was outside in Alaska at the time,” Sullivan described.
The Biden administration officials meeting performance rating? Mostly high marks from both parties
Despite the aggressive statements made by Communist Party officials at the meeting, several Republicans crossed party lines to give Biden Administration officials high marks for their performance.
Sullivan mentioned that he had detailed discussions with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and White House NSC Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell immediately after the Alaska talks. He said, “I liked the way that Sullivan talked about dealing with China, and he mentioned making sure that we’re talking from a position of strength when we’re dealing with the Chinese Communist Party.”
“I’m glad that Secretary Blinken pushed back strongly. It could also be a test to see how far they can advance and vice versa. So I think it’s still important and positive,” Cornyn replied to Voice of America.
However, there are also congressional Republicans who are skeptical that the Biden administration will be able to stand strong against China. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), a Republican U.S. senator from Florida, has often been a harsh critic of China in Congress.
Scott told the Voice of America, “Biden is a rest-of-the-world guy who won’t change anything, and he’s never held any dictator accountable in his Life.”
Future bipartisan coalition against China Democratic leader: U.S.-China partnership can’t go back
Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ)
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and a Democratic U.S. senator from New Jersey, emphasized to VOA that he was proud of the performance of Biden administration officials, saying their response sent a clear and powerful signal that the U.S.-China relationship is not going back.
“I think what was very good about the secretary of state and the national security adviser was that they were very direct, very tough, and therefore made the Chinese Communist Party understand that we’re not going to work together as much as we used to, and that we respectfully disagree with both sides,” Menendez said.
More than two months into his presidency, President Biden’s China Policy has yet to take formal shape, including how the new administration will handle former President Trump‘s series of bans and tariffs related to the Chinese Communist Party. The Biden administration has repeatedly emphasized that Washington will focus on democratic values and holding the Chinese Communist Party accountable for human rights abuses. The U.S. executive branch said it will fully reassess its relationship with the Chinese Communist Party and will consult with Congress before formally launching a full strategy on China.
Biden held his first press conference since taking office on Thursday (March 25). In the hour-long press conference, Biden spent nearly 10 minutes on his views on U.S.-China relations.
Biden said he made clear to Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping during a two-hour phone call after taking office that the United States does not seek “confrontation,” but that there is “intense competition” between the United States and China, and that the United States will insist that the Communist Party play by international rules The U.S. will insist that the Chinese Communist Party “play fair” in accordance with international rules.
Senator Menendez, the Senate Democratic foreign policy leader, also recently characterized the Chinese Communist Party as a “strategic competitor” of the United States in a hearing, and that the United States should be prepared to fully compete with and confront the Chinese Communist Party.
There is little doubt that such thinking has become a bipartisan consensus in Congress. Senator Sullivan argued that the rise of the Chinese Communist Party has been accompanied by watching domestic divisions in the free world and hoping that this will lead to the decline of the United States as it waits for domestic divisions to occur. In fact, Sullivan said, political divisions exist in every country, only the difference is that the United States is a transparent, free society where good and bad are spread out in the sunlight; in contrast, in the Chinese Communist Party, divisions are simply hidden, not non-existent.
“I think there’s no question that all of us, major Republicans, Democrats, are just about to start working with this administration now to come together to deal with the Chinese Communist Party,” Sullivan said at the conference.
“I do think that’s what the Chinese Communist Party is afraid of, and they now know that in many ways we’re finally waking up to (their) challenge, and I call that a ‘cross-party awakening,’ so that’s a powerful position for all of us to be in a position to work together, including senators and executive branch members.”
Sen. Rubio also told Voice of America that America’s top priority will always be to protect its own national interests.
“Our job is to pursue policies that are good for our country, our allies, and our principles and values, and if there is an opportunity to work with the Chinese Communist government, they are a huge, important, powerful economy and country, and we have to maintain a relationship with them, but not at the expense of our core values and core interests,” Rubio Rubio said.
Sen. Cornyn, for his part, said bluntly that the first talks between U.S. and Chinese officials are over, and that the situation is now clearly one in which the U.S. and China will move into another new phase of complexity and intractability.
“I think (the talks) were inconclusive and that this was just the beginning of a long and difficult bilateral engagement,” Cornyn said.
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