Pompeo, Yi in frosty exchange
‘Meng caught in anti-graft drive’
BEIJING, Oct 8, (Agencies): A meeting of top US and Chinese diplomats got off to a frosty start on Monday, with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi airing grievances amid worsening bilateral relations.
While the exchange included typical diplomatic pleasantries, and the two officials emphasised the need for cooperation, their remarks before journalists at the start of their meeting at Beijing’s Diaoyutai Guest House were unusually pointed.
“Recently, as the US side has been constantly escalating trade friction toward China, it has also adopted a series of actions on the Taiwan issue that harm China’s rights, and has made groundless criticism of China’s domestic and foreign policies,” Wang said at the joint appearance with Pompeo.
“We believe this has been a direct attack on our mutual trust, and has cast a shadow on China-US relations,” Wang said.
“We demand that the US side stop this kind of mistaken action,” he said.
Pompeo, who was briefing Wang following his visit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said, “The issues that you characterised we have a fundamental disagreement.”
“We have great concerns about the actions that China has taken, and I look forward to having the opportunity to discuss each of those today because this is an incredibly important relationship.”
A senior US State Department official said the United States still expected cooperation with Beijing on efforts to denuclearise North Korea, whose chief ally is China.
“I would certainly expect so,” the official said. “That’s a very important issue and they recognize that and accept that and realize that.”
Pompeo and Wang openly disagreed over which side had called off a bilateral security dialogue that had been due to take place in Beijing this month.
Last week, Vice President Mike Pence stepped up the US pressure campaign against Beijing, going beyond the trade war by accusing China of both “malign” efforts to undermine President Donald Trump ahead of next month’s congressional elections and of reckless military action in the South China Sea.
Fallen former Interpol president Meng Hongwei rose through the ranks of China’s feared public security apparatus before being caught himself in President Xi Jinping’s no-holdsbarred campaign against corruption.
The vice public security minister, who went missing after travelling to China last month, resigned as head of the France-based international police organisation on Sunday after Chinese authorities announced he was under investigation.
During Xi’s six-year tenure, over a million officials have been punished in an anti-corruption crusade that critics say has also served as a way to root out the president’s political enemies.
According to a statement released Monday by China’s Ministry of Public Security, Meng is suspected of accepting bribes and is under investigation by the country’s anticorruption agency.
A leading Financial Times journalist has been given seven days to leave Hong Kong as a backlash mounted Monday against an unprecedented challenge to freedom of the press in the city.
Victor Mallet, the FT’s Asia news editor and a British national, angered authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong by hosting a speech at the city’s press club by Andy Chan, the leader of a tiny pro-independence political party.
Chan’s party has since been banned as Beijing cracks down on any pro-independence sentiment in the semi-autonomous city.
Last week it emerged Mallet’s application for a renewal of his work visa had been rejected by Hong Kong immigration authorities.
On Monday the FT said Mallet had only been granted a seven-day visitor visa after returning to the city from a trip on Sunday.