US cautions meeting with China unlikely to yield breakthrough

Senior US officials sought to set a low bar on expectations for the Biden administration’s first face-to-face meeting with Chinese officials later this week, saying it will be more about the two sides discussing their priorities— and differences—rather than trying to craft agreements.

“We expect there are parts of the conversation that could be difficult,” Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Tuesday aboard Air Force one en route to Pennsylvania. “There are issues that the president has not held back on voicing concerns about, whether it’s human rights, whether it’s economic or technology issues.”

national Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are scheduled to meet with Yang Jiechi, a member of the ruling Politburo, and Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, on Thursday evening and Friday in Anchorage, Alaska, following Blinken’s visits with allies in Japan and South Korea.

The US is still developing its China strategy and will use the Alaska session to further inform the trajectory for the relationship of the world’s two largest economies, a senior administration official told reporters Tuesday. The goal for the meeting is a frank exchange of views, but it won’t conclude in a joint statement, a second official said.

The official said it was important to make clear to the Chinese side that the Biden team’s public and private messages are the same and that there should be no expectation on Beijing’s side to hope otherwise. Blinken and Sullivan meeting jointly with their Chinese counterparts is intended as a visible show of unity and a signal that Beijing can’t use its past tactic of playing different factions of an administration against one another, one of the officials said.

in remarks with Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on Tuesday, Blinken accused Beijing of using “coercion and aggression” in Hong Kong and the Xinjiang region of China as well as Taiwan.

But US officials have also sought to stress areas of potential cooperation, including on climate change and nuclear nonproliferation.

Psaki told reporters that the Alaska meeting isn’t meant to establish expectations for regular encounters between the two sides.

“i wouldn’t see this as one in a series, ”she said. “This is a meeting that our national security adviser and secretary of state are attending, and i wouldn’t build it out beyond there at this point in time.”

The meeting comes after President Joe Biden and the leaders of Japan, india and Australia held a virtual summit of the so-called Quad countries last week. While the session focused on issues such as bolstering coronavirus vaccine production to aid developing countries, the show of unity against China was unmistakable. The online gathering even prompted criticism from authorities in Beijing.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian called on countries to refrain from creating blocs. exchanges between governments should create understanding and avoid targeting third parties, he said during a regular briefing in Beijing.