US: China’s Actions Threaten Global Stability

Certain actions by China threaten global stability. This is what the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday at the kick-off of the summit talks between the United States and China in Anchorage in Alaska’s US state.

“China’s actions threaten rule-based global stability,” he said.

US and China ministers are in Alaska for a two-day meeting. This is the first summit meeting between the superpowers since the new American president Joe Biden’s inauguration. Blinken is present on behalf of the US, and for China, top diplomat Yang Jiechi and the Secretary of State Wang Yi have travelled to Alaska.

Blinken said he was concerned about cyberattacks on the US, among other things. He also announced that he wanted to talk about Hong Kong and Taiwan’s situation and China’s “economic coercion” on US allies.

During a ten-minute opening statement by Yang, the diplomat accused the US of interfering in internal affairs, among other things. The US accused China of violating the protocol after speaking for longer than the scheduled two minutes.

Blinken has been harshly critical of China in recent days. The minister accused Beijing of systematically undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy and violating human rights in Tibet and Xinjiang. In Xinjiang, critics say the Uyghur minority is being oppressed. In the run-up to the summit, Blinken has already made it clear that he wants to use the meeting in Alaska to share his concerns in “clear terms” with his Chinese colleagues. The Biden government made it clear that it would not shy away from confronting China.

China announced in advance that it would not make concessions on crucial issues. China’s State Department asked the Americans to engage in a “sincere and constructive manner”. “China has no room to compromise on issues related to its sovereignty, security and core interests,” said a spokesman for the Chinese ministry.