The U.S. and China began their first high-level meeting under the Biden administration with an acrimonious exchange of words, setting an abrasive tone as the two powers try to stabilize tense relations. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in opening the talks Thursday, read a list of Washington’s problems with China, citing cyberattacks, China’s crackdown on Hong Kong and threats against Taiwan. These activities, he said, “threaten the rules-based order that maintains global stability.”
Yang Jiechi, a member of the Communist Party’s ruling body, shot back that the U.S. should examine its problems with racism and stop promoting its version of democracy around the world. “The United States does not represent international public opinion and neither does the western world,” said Mr. Yang in a quarter-hour-long statement.
Mr. Blinken answered by saying that while the U.S. “is not perfect,” it deals with its challenges openly. Shortly after, as reporters were being ushered from the room, Mr. Yang called for them to wait and protested the comments, waving his finger and saying the American officials were speaking in a condescending manner.
The two-day meeting was billed in advance by U.S. officials as a chance to air divisive issues as the two sides look to delimit their rivalry and mark out areas for cooperation. The topics cover an array of friction points—from technology to China’s military muscle-flexing—that in the last year of the Trump administration sent relations between the two powers to their lowest point in decades. A senior U.S. official afterward accused Mr. Yang of grandstanding.
Ahead of the talks, the Biden administration underscored its intention to sustain a tough-minded approach to China. Mr. Blinken traveled to Japan and South Korea this week to display the strength of U.S. alliances and draw attention to what he called China’s “coercion and aggression” in the region.
The administration this week also sanctioned senior Chinese legislators for setting laws undermining Hong Kong’s limited autonomy from Beijing and served subpoenas on Chinese companies over national security concerns.
“A big part of the strategy is approaching our relationship with China from a place of strength,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington on Thursday.