U.S.-China Talks, Yang Jiechi Takes Time to Speak, Seriously Overruns
The first round of talks between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi took place on Thursday in a heated exchange.
In his opening remarks, Blinken said, “We will raise our deep concerns about China’s behavior in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, hacking of the United States and economic coercion of our allies,” and that “all of these actions threaten global stability based on a normative order. So this is not just an internal matter that we have an obligation to raise at today’s meeting.”
For his part, Sullivan said these areas that Blinken raised, ranging from economic and military coercion to fundamental values, are all to be discussed together in the future. “We do not seek conflict, but we welcome tough competition, and we will always stand up for our own principles, our people and our allies.”
But when the Chinese representative spoke, the picture immediately turned, and Yang Jiechi alone spoke for 17 minutes, making a tough rebuttal, completely exceeding the scheduled opening two minutes per side, without any translation in between, and when he finished and asked Wang Yi to continue, the Chinese translator said, “Let me translate first?” Yang Jiechi said, “Do you want to turn it over? Go ahead, it’s a test for the interpreters!”
Yang Jiechi said, “The United States is not qualified to speak to the Chinese Communist Party from a high position.” His rebuttal was mostly platitudes, such as China’s firm opposition to U.S. interference in internal affairs, criticism of U.S. human rights being at a low point because of the “massacre” of blacks, etc. He also accused the U.S. of using force and financial hegemony to exercise long-arm jurisdiction and suppression over other countries, and quoted Xi Jinping as saying, “Our views on U.S.-China relations as the country’s leader Xi Jinping said, and that is to look forward to zero conflict, zero confrontation, and win-win cooperation with mutual respect.”
Foreign Minister Wang Yi later added that the United States’ “this old problem should be corrected.” Wang Yi added that China will not accept baseless accusations from the U.S. side in the future.
Because Yang Jiechi’s lengthy comments ran seriously overtime, Blinken suggested that the dozen or so journalists present stay to hear the U.S. response. After the U.S. response, it was time for the media to leave, but then Yang Jiechi turned directly to the television cameras and said in English, “Wait. He then began another lengthy critique of U.S. policy.
CNN reported that a senior U.S. government official told reporters that the Chinese representatives had come to Alaska with an agenda of theater. He said the Chinese side appears to have focused on “public theater rather than substance” and “focused on public theater (performance) and exaggeration.
Why is this necessary? He added that CCP representatives’ “exaggerated diplomatic speeches are usually aimed at domestic audiences.
Voice of America reports that James Berger, a partner in the international regulatory and compliance group at law firm JLG, believes neither side will make any significant concessions.
“In the United States, President Biden wants to show that he still defends American workers and defends issues like what Americans consider to be human rights values. For the Chinese Communist Party, they may want to show as firm a position as possible on foreign policy issues like Taiwan and Hong Kong, and on those trade policy issues that have been pursued under the Trump (Trump) administration.” He said.
Zack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, argued that the purpose of the talks is to give the two sides a chance to understand each other’s positions, and that Washington does not expect to reach any consensus with the Communist Party on issues of concern to the U.S. side.
“I think the talks are likely to be very tense and heated, with both sides ending up holding their grudges against each other.” He said.
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