U.S. President Biden has taken a hard line on China. And indeed, there was unusually frank criticism at his administration's first meeting with Chinese officials.
It was clear that it would be difficult. Just how difficult became apparent right at the beginning of the meeting - in front of running television cameras. Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, and Yang Jiechi, the top diplomat of the Chinese Communist Party, clashed already during the opening statements and showed deep differences of opinion.
Blinken, for example, headed straight for the issues that cause the U.S. and its allies great concern about Chinese actions: the human rights of Uyghurs in Xinjiang and Hong Kong residents, China's dealings with Taiwan, cyberattacks on the U.S., and economic pressures on allies.
Each of these actions threatens the rules-based order that ensures the stability of the world, Blinken said. Therefore, he said, these are not domestic issues, and that is why the U.S. feels obligated to address them here.
Yang counterattacks
His Chinese counterpart saw things quite differently. The U.S. is by no means the representative of public opinion, Yang countered. In general, as his interpreter translated it, the USA had to solve its own problems in the area of human rights. These problems have not only arisen in the past four years, and Black Lives Matter has not only just started to emerge.
In this way, as the television pictures showed, it went back and forth until the doors closed for the journalists. read more