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TOPLINE

The first high-level diplomatic talks between the Biden administration and Beijing got off to a tense start on Thursday as both sides traded barbs on each other's actions and policies, highlighting the growing hostility in ties between the U.S. and China despite a new administration in Washington.

KEY FACTS

In what is the first face-to-face meeting between top officials since Biden took power, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the country’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi in Anchorage, Alaska on Thursday.

At the meeting, Blinken raised Washington's “deep concerns” about China’s actions in its Xinjiang province, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyber attacks on the U.S. and its “economic coercion” of U.S. allies, noting that those actions threaten global stability.

Yang then shot back by slamming what he called the U.S.’s struggling democracy, poor treatment of minority groups and America’s use of “military force and financial hegemony” to suppress other countries, the Associated Press reported.

Yang said China will not accept “unwarranted accusations from the U.S. side,” and added that recent events have pushed bilateral ties between the two countries “into a period of unprecedented difficulty” that “has damaged the interests of our two peoples.”

Blinken appeared annoyed at the length of Yang’s statement which went on for 15 minutes, which according to the State Department went beyond the agreed upon  two-minute time limit for opening statements.

Blinken shot back stating his recent conversations with leaders in Japan and South Korea paint a completely different picture from the one China was pushing and noted there was “deep satisfaction that the United States is back” and “deep concerns” about China’s actions.

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