The first face-to-face meeting between top Chinese and US diplomats took place on Thursday, 18 March, since US President Joe Biden took office in January. Both began with astute remarks in their opening statements, since the tension in bilateral ties had amplified when the Trump administration had directly blamed China for the global pandemic.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Blinken said in his opening remarks that the US-Chinese relationship would be competitive where it should be, collaborative where it can be, and adversarial where it must be.
The Secretary of State had stated that the US intends to defend the “rules-based order” without which there would be a "much more violent world.”
He asserted that the US was concerned about the human rights situation in Hong Kong and in Xinjiang province, which is home to the Uighur ethnic minority. He also accused China of being responsible for cyber-attacks and of blackmailing US allies with economic pressure. Beijing's stance on Taiwan was also criticised.
On the matters of Chinese activities in places like Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan, he asserted that these were not merely internal matters and warned that China's actions threatened global stability.
Ahead of the meeting with the Chinese diplomats, Biden's spokeswoman Jen Psaki had said the focus would be on “having a frank discussion, raising issues where we have concerns, and of course, looking for ways and places where we can work together.”
China’s Response
Replying to Blinken's remarks, Yang said: “It is important for our two countries that we conduct our affairs well instead of shifting the blame on someone else in the world."
“It is a fact that there are many human rights problems in the US,” Yang said, referring to last year's Black Lives Matter protests against racism and police violence.
The talks will continue on Friday.
Hostility in the US-Chinese Relationship
Under former President Donald Trump's administration, ties between China and the US reached their lowest level since diplomatic relations were established in 1979.
It had levied tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of Chinese goods, to which Beijing also responded with duties of its own.
In January 2020, the countries reached a phase one agreement on trade that called for increased Chinese purchases of US goods and greater access to the Chinese financial market.
However, bilateral tensions again increased in the months since, amid the coronavirus pandemic after the Trump administration directly blamed China for the global crisis.
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