The first talks between officials of the administration of US President Joe Biden and their Chinese counterparts were “tough and direct,” but found some areas where the rival superpowers’ interests coincide, US diplomats said on Friday after their meetings ended.
The broad-based talks opened with fireworks for their second and final day, as top diplomats from both sides castigated each other for aggressive actions that were disruptive to global stability.
After three sessions on Thursday and Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the US diplomats were candid about their concerns over Beijing’s behavior toward Taiwan and Hong Kong, and its actions in cyberspace.
Photo: AFP
The Chinese side was defensive as expected, he said.
“But we were also able to have a very candid conversation over these many hours on an expansive agenda,” Blinken said. “On Iran, on North Korea, on Afghanistan, on climate, our interests intersect.”
The talks, two months into the Biden administration, were set up as an exchange of views, and no agreements of pacts were expected.
Over the past few weeks, there had been talk about the two sides aiming to agree on a virtual summit between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) next month, but the failure to announce any accomplishment suggested that the two sides were not able to reach the low bar they had set ahead of the talks.
“We expected to have tough and direct talks on a wide range of issues, and that’s exactly what he had,” US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said. “We are clear-eyed coming out, and we will go back to Washington to take stock of where we are.”
After the meeting, Chinese media cited Chinese Central Foreign Affairs Commission Director Yang Jiechi (楊潔篪) as saying that the talks were “candid, constructive, helpful.”
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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