The US State Department said on Tuesday that it was involved in ongoing dialogue with China over a number of difficult issues, including arms sales to Taiwan, but that it was hopeful they could be resolved.
“I think what we’re clearly indicating is that we will continue to follow our national interest just as we would expect China to follow its national interest,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said when asked at a State Department briefing what US President Barack Obama was doing to ensure that Google, arms sales to Taiwan and an upcoming White House meeting with the Dalai Lama do not harm US-China relations.
“We continue to have a broad and deep relationship with China,” Crowley said. “If you look at the strategic and economic dialogue, it has become a key platform through which we engage at high levels, across the respective governments, on a range of issues political, economic and security related.”
Crowley said the US would continue the dialogue and that he expected China’s top diplomatic and treasury officials to meet their US counterparts later this year.
He said the US cooperates with China on counterterrorism, law enforcement, scientific and technical issues and health problems.
“Do we have issues that crop up from time to time? Absolutely. You have two of the most powerful nations on earth. And our interests coincide in many areas. And our interests collide occasionally. And we work through them and we’ll continue to work through them, through the kind of ongoing dialogue that has characterized our interaction with China since the Obama administration came into office,” Crowley said.
Asked if the US was reaching out to China or doing anything special now — following the Taiwan arms sales announcement last week — Crowley said: “If you look back on these issues, we’ve had very recent conversations with Chinese officials here in Washington, in Beijing and in other locations.”
“We’ve had multiple sessions with Chinese officials. The Chinese have obviously communicated to us their concerns about issues such as Taiwan and the Dalai Lama. So we will continue this dialogue and we expect that we’ll work through these issues as we have in the past,” he said.
Asked about Chinese threats to boycott products by US firms making arms for Taiwan, Crowley said: “As we said when we heard that from our Chinese friends, we regret that they’ve announced that step.”
A reporter at the meeting then asked: “How friendly are they right now? What exactly is going on here?”
Crowley did not reply.
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