The Biden administration is holding its first official high-level talks with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which began on Thursday.
The talks, which are being held in Alaska, were preceded by visits of Biden administration officials to American allies, Japan and South Korea. In an unusually blunt exchange whilst on camera during the opening phase of the talks, American Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, told the Chinese delegation “We will … discuss our deep concerns with actions by China, including in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyber-attacks on the United States, economic coercion of our allies. Each of these actions threatens the rules-based order that maintains global stability.”
According to Reuters, the Chinese delegation responded with a 15-minute speech in Chinese which attacked the US for its allegedly struggling democracy, poor treatment of minority citizens, as well as its foreign and trade policy. The Chinese delegation accused the US specifically of using false notions of national security to incite countries to attack China.
Opening televised remarks usually only last a few minutes and are characterised by tame statements about the goal of forging good relations between the two countries. In this case the exchange between the two delegations in front of cameras lasted more than an hour as the two sides argued about when the media would be asked to leave the room.
This meeting comes as tensions continue to rise between the world’s two largest economies, and will likely be seen as a defining moment for the relationship between the US and PRC over the course of the Biden administration.