Alleged human rights violations in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, as well as police brutality against African-Americans, featured prominently in the first meeting between Biden administration officials and Chinese diplomats since the former entered office in January.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security advisor Jake Sullivan met with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and foreign policy expert Yang Jiechi in Anchorage, Alaska Thursday for the first of three rounds of discussions to be held over the coming two days.
Talk ground to a standstill as both sides traded insults over their domestic human rights track record for more than an hour.
“(We) will discuss our deep concerns with actions by China, including in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyber attacks on the United States (and) economic coercion of our allies,” the secretary said in his opening statement.
“Each of these actions threaten the rule-based order that maintains global stability,” Blinken added.
The Chinese delegation responded in kind, declaring that African-Americans are being “slaughtered," according to Yang, while the U.S. uses its military and economic power to suppress foreign countries.
“(America) abuses so-called notions of national security to obstruct normal trade exchanges and incite some countries to attack China,” Yang said.
U.S. diplomats dismissed these charges as “grandstanding,” and accused their Chinese counterparts of “focusing on public theatrics and dramatics over substance.”
Despite this, the talks will continue as planned, an U.S. official with knowledge of the matter told the BBC, with another two sessions scheduled on Friday.
But for now at least, the talks appear to be living up to the forecast of Cui Tiankai, China’s ambassador to the U.S., who said Wednesday he does not have “high expectations” for the series of meetings.
