U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan (right) meet with top Chinese Communist Party diplomat Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Alaska on March 18-19.
Before the first round of high-level meetings between the U.S. and China that began Thursday (March 18) had officially begun, Chinese representatives broke the rules in an apparent violation.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with top Chinese Communist Party diplomat Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Alaska on Thursday and Friday (March 18-19).
This was the first public meeting between the highest-ranking U.S. and Chinese officials since Biden took office. But before the meeting had even formally begun, the Chinese side broke the rules in a clear violation.
At such high-level government meetings, each side usually begins with a brief two-minute opening statement, a portion open to the media, but Thursday’s opening statement went back and forth for more than an hour, with representatives from both sides arguing over when to take the media out of the room.
First, Secretary of State Blinken and National Security Adviser Sullivan appeared in front of media cameras to deliver a two-minute introduction. Blinken said, “We will …… discuss deeply concerning Chinese (Communist Party of China) actions, including in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyber attacks on the United States, economic coercion against allies.”
He said, “Each of these actions threatens to maintain a stable, rules-based global order.”
Blinken’s delivery was not different from what the Biden Administration had previously revealed.
But then, while the U.S. side waited for an interpreter, Chinese representative Yang Jiechi alone delivered a 15-minute speech in Chinese, well beyond the original speaking Time. Yang’s speech was upside down. He borrowed directly from the issue of black race in the United States, which the Democratic Party often attacks, and in turn urged the Biden administration to do better on human rights issues. At the same time, Yang also charged the U.S. with being a champion of cyber attacks, not representing global public opinion, and having a history of killing black people.
Yang Jiechi also said that the U.S. opening statement was not normal, so his didn’t have to be either.
After the sudden scene, a senior U.S. government official told the media that the Chinese side came out and immediately “violated” the agreed-upon protocol of two minutes of opening remarks from each person in charge.
“The Chinese delegation seemed ready to show off and (they) were focused on overt theatrics (of the show) rather than substance,” the official told reporters in Alaska. “They immediately violated protocol, and (they have) made that clear.”
The official said the U.S. will continue to meet as scheduled, adding that the Chinese side’s “exaggerated diplomatic presentations are often aimed at domestic audiences.”
Before taking office, President Joe Biden had been under attack by Republicans who feared the Biden administration would take too soft an approach to the Communist Party.
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