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US says China actions 'threaten' global stability at meeting between the countries

US says China actions 'threaten' global stability at meeting between the countries

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, joined by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, speaks while facing Yang Jiechi, director of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission Office, and Wang Yi, China's Foreign Minister on Mar 18, 2021. (Photo: AFP/Frederic J BROWN)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska: China's actions "threaten the rules-based order that maintains global stability", US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday (Mar 18) at the opening of a two-day meeting with Chinese counterparts in Alaska.

The US side will "discuss our deep concerns with actions by China, including Xinjiang", where Washington has accused Beijing of "genocide" against Uyghur Muslims, Blinken said at the Anchorage summit with the Chinese Communist Party's top diplomacy official, Yang Jiechi, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

He added that there would be dialogue on "Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyber attacks on the United States, economic coercion toward our allies".

President Joe Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan added that the United States did not want conflict with China but welcomed tough competition with its strategic rival.

"And we will always stand up for our principles for our people, and for our friends," Sullivan warned.

Yang responded with a 15-minute speech in Chinese while the US side awaited translation, lashing out about what he said was the United States' struggling democracy and poor treatment of minorities.

He threatened "firm actions" against "US interference" and called for an end to the "Cold War mentality" stunting the rivals' relationship.

"China is firmly opposed to US interference in China's internal affairs. We have expressed our staunch opposition to such interference, and we will take firm actions in response.

"What we need to do is to abandon the Cold War mentality, and the zero-sum game approach," he said.

Yang added: "The United States uses its military force and financial hegemony to carry out long-arm jurisdiction and suppress other countries.

"It abuses so-called notions of national security to obstruct normal trade exchanges, and incite some countries to attack China."

READ: No easy fixes when US, China diplomats meet in Alaska​​​​​​​

Commentary: Expectations for reset in US-China relations must be managed

Apparently taken aback by Yang's remarks, Blinken held journalists in the room so he could respond.

Sullivan said the United States did not seek conflict with China, but would stand up for principles and friends. He touted the United States' recent Mars rover landing success, and said the country's success was its ability to constantly reinvent itself.

A senior US official later criticised Beijing as having "arrived intent on grandstanding, focused on public theatrics and dramatics over substance" at the Alaska summit.

The official said this was made clear by Yang "promptly violating protocol" with a long opening statement instead of a previously agreed upon short two-minute speech.

The statements from both sides ended up lasting more than an hour.

"PRETTY TOUGH" CONVERSATIONS EXPECTED

Washington says the Asia tour before the meeting with Chinese officials, as well as outreach to Europe, India and other partners, shows how the United States has strengthened its hand to confront China since President Joe Biden took office in January.

But the two sides appear primed to agree on very little at the talks, which were expected to run into the Anchorage evening and continue on Friday.

Even the status of the meeting has become a sticking point, with China insisting it is a "strategic dialogue", harkening back to bilateral mechanisms of years past. The US side has explicitly rejected that, calling it a one-off session.

Commentary: Is China too big to tame? No easy answers to Quad’s central challenge

Commentary: First high-level US-China meetings seem destined to flounder

On the eve of the talks, the United States issued a flurry of actions directed at China, including a move to begin revoking Chinese telecoms licenses, subpoenas to multiple Chinese information technology companies over national security concerns, and updated sanctions on China over a rollback of democracy in Hong Kong.

"We're expecting much of these conversations will be pretty, pretty tough," a senior US administration official told reporters in Alaska before the meeting began.

Washington has said it is willing to work with China when it is in the interests of the United States and has cited the fight against climate change and the coronavirus pandemic as examples. On Thursday, Blinken said Washington hoped to see China uses its influence with North Korea to persuade it to give up its nuclear weapons.

China has indicated it is set to begin trials of two Canadians detained in December 2018 on spying charges soon after Canadian police detained Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of telecoms equipment company Huawei Technologies on a US warrant.

China's foreign ministry said the timing of the trials had nothing to do with the Anchorage talks.

Beijing has called for a reset to ties, now at their lowest in decades.

The largest group representing exiled Uyghurs has written to Blinken urging him to demand that Beijing close its internment camps in the Xinjiang region, where UN experts say that more than 1 million members of the ethnic group and other Muslim minorities have been held.

Blinken had pledged to raise the issue, his State Department having upheld a Trump administration determination that Beijing was perpetrating genocide in Xinjiang, something China vehemently denies.

Yang said Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan were all inseparable parts of Chinese territory and China firmly opposed US interference in its internal affairs. The United States should handle its own affairs and China its own, he said.

"The way we see the relationship with the United States is as President Xi Jinping has said, that is we hope to see no confrontation, no conflict, mutual respect and win-win cooperation with the United States."

Source: Agencies/jt

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