All hopes of “resetting” the U.S.-China relations went down in flames as Chinese delegates heaped insults at the President Joe Biden’s team at the two-day bilateral summit in Anchorage, Alaska.
In first direct talks between Communist China and the Biden administration, the Chinese side accused the U.S. of bullying, military aggression and “deep seated” racism.
“The United States uses its military force and financial hegemony to carry out long-arm jurisdiction and suppress other countries,” Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) foreign policy chief, Yang Jiechi, accused. The Black American were being slaughtered, he claimed referencing the Black Lives Matters movement.
Not stopping there, the top CCP diplomat suggested that the Biden administration was negotiating from a position of weakness. “Let me say here that in front of the Chinese side, the United States does not have the qualification to say that it wants to speak to China from a position of strength,” he told Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the U.S. delegates.
The Associated Press reported the car crash summit hosted by the Biden administration:
In unusually pointed public remarks for a staid diplomatic meeting, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Communist Party foreign affairs chief Yang Jiechi took aim at each other’s country’s policies at the start of two days of talks in Alaska. The contentious tone of their public comments suggested the private discussions would be even more rocky. (…)Blinken said the Biden administration is united with its allies in pushing back against China’s increasing authoritarianism and assertiveness at home and abroad. Yang then unloaded a list of Chinese complaints about the U.S. and accused Washington of hypocrisy for criticizing Beijing on human rights and other issues. (…)Yang responded angrily by demanding the U.S. stop pushing its own version of democracy at a time when the United States itself has been roiled by domestic discontent. He also accused the U.S. of failing to deal with its own human rights problems and took issue with what he said was “condescension” from Blinken, Sullivan and other U.S. officials.“We believe that it is important for the United States to change its own image and to stop advancing its own democracy in the rest of the world,” he said. “Many people within the United States actually have little confidence in the democracy of the United States.”“China will not accept unwarranted accusations from the U.S. side,” he said, adding that recent developments had plunged relations “into a period of unprecedented difficulty” that “has damaged the interests of our two peoples.”’There is no way to strangle China,” he said.Blinken appeared to be annoyed by the tenor and length of the comments, which went on for more than 15 minutes.
While China showed utter disdain for the weak foreign policy stance taken by the Biden administration, Secretary Blinken congratulated himself and the White House on the new diplomatic approach undertaken after four years of Trump presidency. “I’m hearing deep satisfaction that the United States is back, that we’re reengaged,” he declared at the summit.
The administration tried to downplay its failure by calling the meeting “substantive, serious and direct.”
If U.S.-China relationship is the “biggest geopolitical test of the 21st century,” as the Biden administration itself touts, the White House failed miserably in the first round.
The BBC described the summit hosted by the Biden team as an “unusually undiplomatic sparring match.” Even the sympathetic CNN admitted that it was an “inauspicious start to a new era of relations.”
The performance given by the Chinese delegates is both for the domestic and international audience. With President Biden in the White House, China is openly talking of becoming the world’s sole superpower. Earlier this month, Beijing unveiled a 15-year plan to overtake the U.S. as the world’s leading economic and geopolitical power. This follows a major push to modernize the Chinese navy and armed forces by 2027, aimed at challenging the U.S. and the allies in Asia and the Pacific.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY