Blinken discusses Uighurs, HK in 1st call with China
WASHINGTON: US secretary of state Antony Blinken pressed Beijing on its treatment of Uighurs, Tibetans and Hong Kong while China defended its policies in the first conversation between top officials of the two nations since President Joe Biden took office.
“I made clear the US will defend our national interests, stand up for our democratic values, and hold Beijing accountable for its abuses of the international system,” Blinken said on Twitter of his call with senior Chinese official Yang Jiechi.
Blinken told Yang that the US “will continue to stand up for human rights and democratic values, including in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong,” a state department statement said of the call, which took place on Friday Washington time.
Blinken also “pressed China to join the international community in condemning the military coup in Burma,” it said, using the former name of Myanmar.
The top US diplomat said the US would hold Beijing “accountable for its efforts to threaten stability in the Indo-Pacific, including across the Taiwan Strait, and its undermining of the rules-based international system”.
Yang however warned on the call that Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet were “China’s internal affairs” and “no external forces are allowed to interfere”, urging the United States to “correct mistakes” made in recent years, the Chinese embassy to the US said in a statement.
He also called on Washington to “strictly abide by the one China principle” under which Beijing considers Taiwan an inseparable part of its territory.
US drops terrorist tag for Yemen’s Houthi fighters
The United States intends to revoke the Houthi movement’s terrorist designation in response to Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, reversing one of the Trump administration’s most criticised last-minute decisions.
The move was confirmed by a state department official on Friday, “Our action is due entirely to the humanitarian consequences of this last-minute designation from the prior administration,” the official said.
The UN describes Yemen as the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, with 80% of its people in need.