US, Chinese diplomats clash in first high-level meeting of Biden administration

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters): The first high-level US-China meeting of the Biden administration got off to a fiery start on Thursday, with both sides levelling sharp rebukes of the others’ policies in a rare public display that underscored the level of bilateral tension.

The run-up to the talks in Anchorage, Alaska, which followed visits by US officials to allies Japan and South Korea, was marked by a flurry of moves by Washington that showed it was taking a tough stance, and by blunt talk from Beijing.

“We will ... discuss our deep concerns with actions by China, including in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyber attacks on the United States, economic coercion of our allies,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his Chinese counterparts in a highly unusual extended back-and-forth in front of cameras.

“Each of these actions threaten the rules-based order that maintains global stability,” he said.

The Biden administration has made clear that it is looking for a change in behaviour from China, which has expressed hope to reset relations between the world’s two largest economies that worsened drastically under former President Donald Trump.

China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi responded with a 15-minute speech in Chinese while the US side awaited translation, lashing out over what he said was the United States’ struggling democracy, poor treatment of minorities, and criticising its foreign and trade policies.

“The United States uses its military force and financial hegemony to carry out long-arm jurisdiction and suppress other countries,” said Yang.

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

Throughout Yang’s monologue, US National Security Adviser Sullivan and other officials in the delegation passed notes to each other. At the end, Blinken held journalists in the room so he could respond.

What is typically a few minutes of opening remarks in front of journalists for such high-level meetings lasted more than an hour, and the two delegations tussled about when media would be ushered out of the room.

Afterwards, the United States accused China of “grandstanding” while Chinese state media blamed US officials for speaking too long and being “inhospitable”.

Both sides accused the other of violating diplomatic protocol by speaking too long in opening remarks.