At a meeting at the level of the deputy foreign minister, it becomes clear that relations between China and the USA are increasingly deadlocked.
Beijing sets conditions and criticizes “demonization”.
Tianjin / Munich - China is setting conditions for the USA to repair frosty relations. This became clear during the visit of US Vice Secretary of State Wendy Sherman to the port city of Tianjin. At the meeting, Sherman's counterpart, China's Deputy Foreign Minister Xie Feng, presented the US delegation with
two lists,
according to a report by the Hong Kong
South China Morning Post
: one with conditions for normalizing relations - and another with Beijing's general concerns. There has not been something like that before. For decades it has been the West that has asked China to change. The fact that Beijing is now turning the tables shows the country's increased self-confidence.
China now sees itself on an equal footing with the USA - this is also shown by other statements relating to the meeting. Foreign Minister Wang Yi had already stressed at the weekend that the USA was by no means superior to other states. China would like to give America a "course" on how to treat other nations equally, Wang said. Since President Joe Biden took office, the USA has once again issued the motto of wanting to speak to China from a “position of strength” - this was also the case before Sherman's visit. The Biden government is currently trying to swear allies in Europe and Asia to form a kind of coalition that will counter China's growing global influence with an alternative and protect the rule-based world order. In Tianjin, both sides are basically ready, despite the frosty relationship,working together on global issues such as climate protection.
China and USA: Conditions for a better relationship
On the list of conditions for better relations, according to the report, China is calling, among other things, for an end to visa restrictions for members of the Communist Party and their families, as well as for Chinese students. Beijing also demands the lifting of US sanctions against Chinese officials, government officials and authorities - as well as restrictions on Confucius Institutes and Chinese companies. Beijing backed up this demand at the weekend:In retaliation for the US sanctions against representatives of the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong and for a recent US warning of new corporate risks in Hong Kong, China in turn imposed sanctions against seven people and institutions in the US - including former US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, according to state media and Sophie Richardson of Human Rights Watch. At first there were no details.
Beijing also wants the US to overturn court rulings that designate the Chinese media as foreign agents. Another sore point is the American extradition request for the Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who is therefore under house arrest in Vancouver, Canada. China considers the as yet unproven allegations against Meng to be politically motivated. On legal issues, however, it is unlikely that the Biden government can or will bow to pressure.
When asked about the two lists, senior US government officials gave more general answers in a phone call to American journalists after the meeting: that both sides were addressing issues and that the US was planning to investigate Chinese concerns.
According to
CNBC
, the
officials said
the four-hour discussions were direct, frank and constructive.
It was about well-known topics from Hong Kong to Iran.
China and the USA: old issues, deadlocked relationships
According to the
South China Morning Post,
the items on China's list of concerns include the
unfair treatment of Chinese citizens, according to Beijing, and the growing anti-Asian racism in the US. Xie Feng also stressed that the Chinese side had expressed "strong dissatisfaction" with US words and actions in relation to investigations into the origins of Covid-19, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and the South China Sea.
The latter are the usual points of contention that Wendy Sherman also raised at the meeting - albeit with the opposite sign. For example, after the meetings with Xie and Wang, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ned Price spoke of criticism of the “anti-democratic approach in Hong Kong” or of China's blockade of further Covid investigations in Wuhan. Price described China's dealings with the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang - unlike the EU, for example - as “genocide”. So the fronts are deadlocked. The USA also recently accused China of being the originator of the hacker attacks against Microsoft's mail server. The EU also emphasized that the hacking attack on Microsoft violated “the norms of responsible government behavior”. The EU, USA and Japan are calling for China to crack down on cybercrime.
China: USA seeks "comprehensive containment" of the country
Immediately before the meeting, Xie Feng had accused the US of wanting to "contain China comprehensively" - and called on Washington to end its policy of "demonizing" and promoting the people's republic.
"The US does not seem to be able to talk about anything, or to do anything that has nothing to do with China," the state media quoted the deputy minister as saying.
China has become an “imaginary enemy” in the minds of Americans.
Parallel to the meeting, Foreign Office spokesman Zhao Lijian also called on the US to support a smooth transition in Afghanistan.
Washington must take responsibility for the deteriorating security situation in the country, which it caused itself by the hasty withdrawal of troops.
This is also an unusual tone: in the past, Beijing rarely interfered in such geostrategic issues.
China and USA: Presidential meeting possible at G20 summit in October
Wendy Sherman is the highest-ranking US government official to have traveled to China since President Joe Biden took office.
The US side had originally tried to meet someone from the inner circle of Chinese President Xi Jinping - none of whom China's foreign policy-makers belong to.
The meeting with Xie Feng and Wang Yi was intended to prepare a later meeting between the two foreign ministers Antony Blinken and Wang, which in turn is a prerequisite for a possible summit between the two heads of state.
We are talking about a meeting between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Rome in October.
As a precautionary measure because of the pandemic, the talks did not take place in Beijing, but in the city of Tianjin, 130 kilometers from the capital.
(ck / with dpa)