US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is to meet with top Chinese officials on Thursday next week in Alaska, the White House said on Wednesday, the first high-level in-person contact between the two countries under the administration of US President Joe Biden.
The meeting, taking place on Blinken’s return from his first overseas trip to key US allies Japan and South Korea, would come amid a major US diplomatic push to solidify alliances in Asia and Europe to counter China.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is to join the meeting in Anchorage with Chinese Central Foreign Affairs Commission Director Yang Jiechi (楊潔篪) and Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅), White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, adding that the administration would approach its relations with China “in lockstep” with its partners.
“It was important to us that this administration’s first meeting with Chinese officials be held on US soil, and occur after we have met and consulted closely with partners and allies in both Asia and Europe,” Psaki told a news briefing.
The meeting would be “an opportunity to address a wide range of issues, including ones where we have deep disagreements,” she said.
China’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Biden administration has committed to reviewing elements of US policies toward China, as the world’s two largest economies navigate frosty relations that sank to their lowest depths in decades during the administration of former US president Donald Trump.
Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) last month held their first telephone call as leaders and appeared at odds on most issues, even as Xi said that confrontation would be a “disaster” for the two nations.
Testifying before the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, Blinken said that next week’s meeting would not be a return to regular senior-level dialogues used under past US administrations, which had been criticized in Washington for yielding little progress on US grievances with Beijing.
“There’s no intent at this point for a series of follow-on engagements,” Blinken said. “Those engagements, if they are to follow, really have to be based on the proposition that we’re seeing tangible progress and tangible outcomes on the issues of concern to us with China.”
If China insists that it is not violating the human rights of Uighurs in Xinjiang, it should provide the world access to the area, Blinken added.
UN experts and human rights groups have said that China has detained more than 1 million Uighurs and other minorities in Xinjiang, actions the US has deemed to be genocide.
The talks are to follow the visit by Blinken and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to Japan and South Korea next week, as well as an online summit today between Biden and the leaders of Japan, India and Australia.
Bonnie Glaser, an Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that the timing of the meeting sends the message to Beijing that the US’ alliances are strong.
Discussions are likely to focus on the Chinese government’s policies toward Hong Kong, its pressure on Taiwan, its treatment of Uighurs and what Washington sees as economic coercion against Australia, she said.
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