The top U.S. and Chinese foreign affairs officials met in Alaska on Thursday (March 18) for the first face-to-face talks since President Biden took office. Before the talks could begin in earnest, the two sides went at each other in front of the media cameras with an unusually sharp exchange of words, a rare public display of the tensions between the two powers. The U.S. side sharply criticized various Chinese government actions and vowed to defend the international order and the interests of the United States and its allies, while the Chinese side responded forcefully.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Blinken and National Security Advisor Sullivan began two days of talks in Anchorage, Alaska, with Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Director of the Office of the CPC Central Committee’s Leading Group for Foreign Affairs, and Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The two sides immediately exchanged verbal blows as they were photographed by the media before the substantive talks began.
In his opening remarks, Blinken, who had just returned from a visit to Japan and South Korea, said the issues the U.S. side wanted to address in the meeting concerned not only the United States and China, but other countries in the region and the world. He said failure to adhere to a rules-based international order would lead to a more violent world.
“This system is not abstract. It helps nations resolve their differences peacefully, coordinate multilateral efforts effectively, and engage in global commerce while ensuring that all parties abide by the same rules. The alternative to a rules-based order is a world where might is right and winner takes all, a world that is more violent and unstable for all of us.”
Blinken said, “We will also discuss our deep concern about China’s actions – including in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan, cyber attacks on the United States, economic coercion against our allies. These actions invariably threaten the rules-based order that maintains global stability. So they are not just internal affairs, and we therefore feel obligated to raise these topics here today.”
U.S. National Security Advisor Sullivan went on to say that they will make clear during the talks that “our overriding U.S. priority is to ensure that our approach to world affairs and our approach to China’s affairs benefits the American people and protects the interests of our allies and partners.”
“We do not seek conflict, but we welcome fierce competition, and we will always defend our principles, defend our people and our friends,” Sullivan said.
Yang Jiechi, the Communist Party’s foreign affairs chief, spent 15 minutes raising China’s various grievances against the U.S., blaming the United States for waging wars that have caused many lives and unrest in the world.
“On regional issues, the problem is that the United States, by virtue of its own force and financial hegemony, has long-armed jurisdiction over other countries, suppresses them, abuses the concept of so-called national security to hinder normal trade exchanges, and incites some countries to attack China, while China handles imports and exports according to scientific and technological standards.”
The Communist Party Politburo member in charge of foreign affairs also criticized the U.S. approach to promoting human rights and democracy abroad.
He said, “The human rights problems that exist in the United States are deep-rooted, not just in the past four years, the massacre of black people, there has been this problem for a long Time, so I think it’s better for our two countries to mind their own business and not to shift the spearhead, to shift the unresolved domestic problems to the international level.”
“What the United States needs to do now is to change its image, not to promote its so-called democracy. And within the United States itself now, many people do not have confidence in American democracy and have various views on the American government,” Yang Jiechi added.
This statement by Yang Jiechi apparently surprised Blinken, who left the filming journalists in the meeting room to respond to Yang’s remarks.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also criticized the United States for interfering in China’s internal affairs in his next remarks.
He said, “China has never, will never, and will never accept unwarranted accusations from the U.S. side, and at the same time we demand that the U.S. side should abandon this hegemonic practice of interfering in China’s internal affairs at every turn, and this old problem should be corrected.”
On Tuesday evening, the U.S. announced that it had imposed financial sanctions on 24 more Chinese and Hong Kong officials for undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy, including 14 vice chairmen of the Chinese National People’s Congress. Wang Yi complained about this, saying, “I don’t think this is the normal way to treat people. Of course, if the U.S. side is trying to use this move to supposedly enhance your advantage over China, I think I’m afraid you’re playing the wrong game, and it will only prove inner weakness and powerlessness, and it will not in any way affect China’s legitimate position or shake the will of the Chinese people.”
On the eve of the talks, the Biden Administration took other actions against China on Wednesday, including beginning to revoke China’s telecommunications licenses and serving subpoenas on a number of Chinese companies for national security clearance reasons.
After Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi completed their lengthy statements, Secretary Blinken then made additional remarks.
Blinken mentioned that in his short time as Secretary of State he has spoken to nearly 100 diplomatic chiefs around the world and has just completed his first trip to Japan and South Korea. He told Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi, “I have to tell you that what I’ve heard is very different from what you’ve described. What I heard was a depth of satisfaction that the United States is back, that we are re-engaging with our allies and our partners. I also hear a depth of concern about some of the actions that your administration is taking. We will have an opportunity to discuss those when we actually talk.”
“A confident nation can take a hard look at its shortcomings and always look to improve. That’s the secret of America,” added Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser.
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