War of words...

RFA

 

The first meeting held between senior U.S. and Chinese diplomats under the Biden administration erupted into an unusually public war of words during opening remarks observed by the press. In front of cameras at the site of the talks in Anchorage, Alaska, China’s two top diplomats, Wang Yi and Yang Jiechi, blasted the U.S. after Secretary of State Anthony Blinken expressed “deep concerns with actions by China, including in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyber attacks on the United States, [and] economic coercion of our allies."

Behind closed doors, an American official said the meeting was substantive and serious, but commentators argued that the on-camera exchange reveals what Chinese authorities want to communicate to domestic audiences. Yang Jiechi, in particular, emphasized that the Chinese delegation were “guests” in the U.S. and should be treated as such. "Well, it was my bad,” he said.  “When I entered this room, I should have reminded the U.S. side of paying attention to its tone in our respective opening remarks, but I didn’t."
 

The State Department said the Chinese delegation blew through an agreed two-minute time limit for opening remarks on each side, with Yang speaking for upwards of 15 minutes. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Yang and Wang had issued a "stern" response to U.S. provocation. Wu Qiang, former politics lecturer at Tsinghua University in Beijing, told RFA that the meeting underscores “how wide and deep” the differences between the two sides are. "It will likely be a turning point, after which China and the United States move towards a new cold war," he added.