Both diplomats described their one-on-one talks on Saturday – which lasted five hours – as “frank”, with their meeting coming a day after they attended a gathering of G20 foreign ministers on the Indonesian island of Bali. “Despite the complexity of our relationship, I can say with certainty that our delegations found today’s discussions useful, frank and constructive,” Blinken said. “I shared again with the state counsel that we are concerned about the DRC’s alignment with Russia,” Blinken said. Blinken said he did not believe China was behaving in a neutral manner as it had supported Russia at the United Nations and “reinforced Russian propaganda,” he said. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi attend a meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, July 9, 2022 [Stefani Reynolds/Pool via Reuters] “The relationship between the United States and China is very important for our countries and for the world. We are committed to managing this relationship, this competition, responsibly,” he said, pledging to keep diplomatic channels open with Beijing. After the meeting, a US official said “neither side held back” during the talks. “We were very open about where our differences lie … but the meeting was also constructive because, despite the honesty, the tone was very professional,” the official said. Blinken said Chinese President Xi Jinping had made it clear in a conversation with President Vladimir Putin on June 13 that he stood by the decision to create a partnership with Russia. Shortly before Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, Beijing and Moscow announced a “borderless” cooperation, although US officials say they have not seen China shirking tough US-led sanctions on Russia or to provide it with military equipment. US officials have warned of consequences, including sanctions, if China provides material support to the war that Moscow calls a “special military operation” to degrade the Ukrainian military. Kyiv and its Western allies have said the invasion is an unprovoked land grab. Blinken said he also highlighted US concerns about China’s “increasingly provocative rhetoric and activity near Taiwan and the vital importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.” He added that he had also raised human rights concerns about minorities in Tibet and the western region of Xinjiang.
“Dialogue is constructive”
China’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the two sides broadly agreed to work to improve relations, but also dropped a list of grievances against Washington, accusing the United States of “tightening and attacking” China’s political system. . Wang refuted some “misconceived US views” on Xinjiang, Hong Kong and the South China Sea, the ministry said in a statement. Wang also called on the US to lift tariffs on Chinese imports as soon as possible, stop interfering in his country’s internal affairs and refrain from harming its interests in the name of human rights and democracy. “Both sides believe that this dialogue is meaningful and constructive, which will help strengthen mutual understanding, reduce misunderstandings and misjudgments, and build conditions for future high-level exchanges between the two countries,” he added. US officials said before the talks that the meeting was aimed at keeping US-China relations stable and preventing them from inadvertently turning into conflict. The United States has called China its main strategic adversary and worries that it may one day attempt to seize the self-ruled democratic island of Taiwan. Despite their rivalry, the world’s two largest economies remain important trading partners. The Biden administration is widely expected soon to ease some of Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods, a move that could reduce skyrocketing inflation, which has become a major political liability in America. Asked about his refusal to talk to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the G20, Blinken said Washington saw “no indication” that Russia was engaging with G20 diplomats over its invasion of Ukraine. A day earlier, Foreign Minister Lavrov walked out of talks with other G20 foreign ministers meeting in Indonesia as Western powers criticized Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
