ANCHORAGE – US-China talks began yesterday, with both sides appearing unlikely to end their competition in search for global hegemony.
China’s actions “threaten the rules-based order that maintains global stability,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said 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 advisor 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, for his part, 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,” Yang Jiechi, the director of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Foreign Affairs Commission Office said at the summit.
“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 added. – AFP, March 19, 2021
