Intense bilateral discussions have been taking place in Anchorage, Alaska
The White House have spoken and says the Biden administration is more than ready to have a “frank conversation” with China. They will be negotiating from a position of “strength,” as officials hold intense bilateral discussions with Beijing.
On Friday the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre regarded the meetings that Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan held on Thursday with Chinese officials in Anchorage, Alaska.
A third meeting has been setup for Friday morning.
“We knew going in to this it was going to be tough,” Jean-Pierre said. “We are ready to have a frank conversation and we are going to continue those conversations.”
Jean-Pierre said the White House “knew this would be a tough discussion, a frank discussion,” but claimed the administration is going to be “still moving to diplomacy in every relationship.”
“This is part of the process, we knew it was going to be intense.. we are going to continue moving forward,” Jean-Pierre said.
Jean-Pierre thinks that having the meeting on U.S. soil was “the key” as to how they will continue on with China, saying it will be a “competitive relationship” but that they are going to “continue moving with diplomacy.”
On Thursday’s meeting, Blinken had said the Biden administration is uniting with its allies in fightingg back against China’s increasing authority and aggressiveness at home and abroad. Chinese Communist Party foreign affairs chief Yang Jiechi then shown a list of Chinese issues withthe U.S. and had accused Washington of hypocrisy for critiquing Beijing on human rights and such.
“Each of these actions threaten the rules-based order that maintains global stability,” Blinken said of China’s actions in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and of cyberattacks on the United States and economic coercion against U.S. allies. “That’s why they’re not merely internal matters, and why we feel an obligation to raise these issues here today.”
Sullivan upped the critique by saying China has undergone an “assault on basic values.”
“We do not seek conflict but we welcome stiff competition,” he said.
Yang demands that the U.S. stops forcing its own idea of democracy at a time when the United States itself has been overturned by domestic discontent. He also accuses the U.S. of failure to deal with its own human rights issues and took issue with what he calls “condescension” from Blinken, Sullivan and other numerous U.S. officials.
“We believe that it is important for the United States to change its own image and to stop advancing its own democracy in the rest of the world,” he said. “Many people within the United States actually have little confidence in the democracy of the United States.”
“China will not accept unwarranted accusations from the U.S. side,” he said. “Into a period of unprecedented difficulty” that “has damaged the interests of our two peoples,” he added.
“There is no way to strangle China,” he commented.
The State Department demolished the Chinese delegation for violating a time limitt hey had agreed upon. There was a two-minute time limit for opening statements, and they “focused on public theatrics and dramatics over substance.”
“America’s approach will be undergirded by confidence in our dealing with Beijing — which we are doing from a position of strength — even as we have the humility to know that we are a country eternally striving to become a more perfect union,” it said.
One of Biden’s officials held another meeting on Thursday “substantive, serious, and direct,” saying that both sides were able to discuss their interests and priorities, Reuters reported.
U.S. and China ties have been split for years, and the Biden administration has yet to determine whether it’s ready or willing to back away from the stances taken under Donald Trump.
The day before the meeting, Blinken declared new sanctions over Beijing’s crackdown on pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong. China said they are opposing U.S. interference in domestic affairs and discussed complaint directly about it.