BEIJING, 26 Apr: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and senior Chinese officials, stressing the importance of \u201cresponsibly managing\u201d the differences between the United States and China as the two sides butted heads over a number of contentious bilateral, regional and global issues.
\nTalks between the two sides have increased in recent months, even as differences have grown. Blinken said he raised concerns with Xi about China\u2019s support for Russia and its invasion of Ukraine, as well as other issues including Taiwan and the South China Sea, human rights and the production and export of synthetic opioid precursors.
\nBlinken sounded a positive note on recent progress made in bilateral cooperation, including in military communications, counternarcotics and artificial intelligence, on which the two sides agreed to start a dialogue on how to reduce risks from the rapidly emerging technology.
\n\u201cWe are committed to maintaining and strengthening lines of communication to advance that agenda, and again deal responsibly with our differences so we avoid any miscommunications, any misperceptions, any miscalculations,\u201d he said.
\nBut he stressed that \u201ceven as we seek to deepen cooperation, where our interests align, the United States is very clear-eyed about the challenges posed by (China) and about our competing visions for the future. America will always defend our core interests and values.\u201d
\nNotably, he said he raised ongoing concerns about Beijing\u2019s supply of materials, including machine tools and micro electronics, to Moscow that President Vladimir Putin is using to boost Russia\u2019s defenses and its war on Ukraine.
\n\u201cRussia would struggle to sustain its assault on Ukraine without China\u2019s support,\u201d Blinken told reporters after his meeting with Xi.
\n\u201cFueling Russia\u2019s defense industrial base not only threatens Ukrainian security, it threatens European security,\u201d he added. \u201cAs we\u2019ve told China for some time, ensuring transatlantic security is a core U.S. interest. In our discussions today. I made clear that if China does not address this problem, we will.\u201d
\nBlinken did not elaborate on how the U.S. would address the matter if China did not, but Washington has imposed large numbers of sanctions against Chinese firms for doing business with countries such as Russia, Iran and North Korea.
\nHe said he urged China to use its influence \u201cto discourage Iran and its proxies from expanding the conflict in the Middle East \u201d and convince North Korea \u201cto end its dangerous behavior and engage in dialogue.\u201d
\nBlinken also discussed with Xi China\u2019s maritime maneuvers in the disputed South China Sea, and reiterated \u201cironclad\u201d American support for the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia.
\nXi stressed that China and the U.S. must seek common ground \u201crather than engage in vicious competition.\u201d
\n\u201cChina is happy to see a confident, open, prosperous and thriving United States,\u201d the Chinese leader said. \u201cWe hope the U.S. can also look at China\u2019s development in a positive light. This is a fundamental issue that must be addressed.\u201d
\nEarlier, Blinken held lengthy talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Public Security Minister Wang Xiaohong.
\nHe and Wang underscored the importance of keeping lines of communication open as they lamented persistent and deepening divisions that threaten global security. AP<\/p>\n
Those divisions were highlighted earlier this week when U.S. President Joe Biden signed a massive foreign aid bill that contains several elements that the Chinese see as problematic.
\n\u201cOverall, the China-U.S. relationship is beginning to stabilize,\u201d Wang told Blinken at the start of about 5 1\/2 hours of talks. \u201cBut at the same time, the negative factors in the relationship are still increasing and building and the relationship is facing all kinds of disruptions.\u201d
\nWang also outlined, without being specific, well-known Chinese complaints about U.S. policies and positions on the South China Sea, Taiwan, human rights and China\u2019s right to conduct relations with countries it deems fit, saying \u201cChina\u2019s legitimate development rights have been unreasonably suppressed.\u201d
\n\u201cChina\u2019s concerns are consistent,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have always called for respect of each other\u2019s core interests and urge the United States not to interfere in China\u2019s internal affairs, not to hold China\u2019s development back, and not to step on China\u2019s red lines on China\u2019s sovereignty, security, and development interests.\u201d
\nBlinken responded by saying that the Biden administration places a premium on U.S.-China dialogue even on issues of dispute. He noted there had been some progress in the past year but suggested that talks would continue to be difficult.
\nBlinken arrived in China on Wednesday, visiting Shanghai shortly before Biden signed the $95 billion foreign aid package that has several elements likely to anger Beijing, including $8 billion to counter China\u2019s growing aggressiveness toward Taiwan and in the South China Sea. It also seeks to force TikTok\u2019s China-based parent company to sell the social media platform.
\nChina and the United States are the major players in the Indo-Pacific. Washington has become increasingly alarmed by Beijing\u2019s growing aggressiveness in recent years toward Taiwan and its smaller Southeast Asian neighbors with which it has significant territorial and maritime disputes in the South China Sea.
\nChina has railed against U.S. assistance to Taiwan and immediately condemned the aid as a dangerous provocation. It also strongly opposes efforts to force TikTok\u2019s sale, although Blinken said this issue did not come up in his talks on Friday.
\nThe bill also allots $61 billion for Ukraine to defend itself from Russia\u2019s invasion. China\u2019s foreign ministry said the U.S. position on Chinese defense trade with Russia was hypocritical when considered alongside the amount of military assistance Washington is providing to Kyiv.
\n\u201cIt is extremely hypocritical and irresponsible for the U.S. side to introduce a bill for large-scale assistance to Ukraine while making groundless accusations against normal economic and trade exchanges between China and Russia,\u201d said ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin.
\n\u201cShifting the blame to China will not solve the problem, nor will it alleviate the passive situation of the parties involved in the Ukraine crisis,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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BEIJING, 26 Apr: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and senior Chinese officials, stressing the importance of \u201cresponsibly managing\u201d the differences between the United States and China as the two sides butted heads over a number of contentious bilateral, regional and global issues. Talks between the two sides […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-239575","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}