ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Top U.S. and Chinese officials wrapped up two days of contentious talks in Alaska on Friday after having traded sharp and unusually public barbs over vastly different views of each other and the world in their first face-to-face meeting since President Joe Biden took office.
The two sides finished the meetings after an opening session on Thursday in which they attacked each other.
The U.S. accused the Chinese delegation of “grandstanding” and Beijing fired back, saying there was a “strong smell of gunpowder and drama” that was entirely the fault of the Americans.
“We got a defensive response,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said after the meetings concluded. “We wanted to share with them the significant concerns that we have about a number of the actions that China has taken, and behaviors exhibiting concerns, shared by our allies and partners. And we did that. We also wanted to lay out very clearly, our own policies, priorities, and worldview. And we did that too.”
“There are a number of areas where we are fundamentally at odds,” he said. .”It’s no surprise that when we raised issues we got a defensive response, but also we had a very candid conversation and a expansive agenda.”
There was no immediate response from the Chinese side, although the acrimonious tone of Thursday’s comments suggested the private discussions would be rocky.
As they opened the talks, Blinken said the Biden administration is united with its allies in pushing back against Chinese authoritarianism. In response, Chinese Communist Party foreign affairs chief Yang Jiechi accused Washington of hypocrisy on human rights and other issues.
The meetings in Anchorage were a new test in increasingly troubled relations between the two countries, which are at odds over a range of issues from trade to human rights in Tibet, Hong Kong and China’s western Xinjiang region, as well as over Taiwan, China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea and the coronavirus pandemic.
“Each of these actions threaten the rules-based order that maintains global stability,” Blinken said of China’s actions. “That’s why they’re not merely internal matters, and why we feel an obligation to raise these issues here today.”
National security adviser Jake Sullivan amplified the criticism, saying China has undertaken an “assault on basic values.”
“We do not seek conflict but we welcome stiff competition,” he said.
Yang responded angrily by demanding the U.S. stop pushing its own version of democracy at a time when the United States itself has been roiled by domestic discontent. He also accused the U.S. of failing to deal with its own human rights problems and took issue with what he said was “condescension” from Blinken, Sullivan and other U.S. officials.
