BEIJING – The United States and China butted heads over a number of contentious bilateral, regional and global issues as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and senior Chinese officials and warned of the dangers of misunderstandings and miscalculations.
Blinken was meeting with Xi in Beijing after holding talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Public Security Minister Wang Xiaohong.
Talks between the two sides have increased in recent months, even as differences have grown. Blinken and Wang underscored the importance of keeping lines of communication open, but they also lamented that divisions were becoming more serious in nature.
They each underscored the importance of keeping lines of communication open.
“Overall, the China-US relationship is beginning to stabilize,” Wang told Blinken at the start of about 5 1/2 hours of talks.
“But at the same time, the negative factors in the relationship are still increasing and building and the relationship is facing all kinds of disruptions.”
“Should China and the United States keep to the right direction of moving forward with stability or return to a downward spiral?” he asked according to AP. “This is a major question before our two countries and tests our sincerity and ability.”
“China´s legitimate development rights have been unreasonably suppressed and our core interests are facing challenges,” he said.
“China´s concerns are consistent. We have always called for respect of each other´s core interests and urge the United States not to interfere in China´s internal affairs, not to hold China´s development back, and not to step on China´s red lines on China´s sovereignty, security, and development interests.”
Earlier on Friday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Blinken.
Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that China’s attitude has always been consistent. China views and develops China-US relations from the world vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity.
He said China’s position has always been consistent. China adheres to the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation, and commits to promoting the stable, healthy, and sustainable development of China-US relations.
Wang said, according to Xinhua, that China’s request has always been consistent. China proposes to respect each other’s core interests, and urges the US side not to interfere in China’s internal affairs, suppress China’s development, or cross China’s red lines when it comes to China’s sovereignty, security, and development interests.
Discussion about this post