China plans to ask the U.S. to implement Trump’s policies at the Alaska meeting

U.S. officials say the meeting is a way to file U.S. complaints about Chinese actions, such as its curtailment of freedoms in Hong Kong, naval expansion in the South China Sea, economic pressure on allies of the United States, intellectual property violations and cybersecurity raids. The United States also plans to make Chinese officials aware of ways the two countries could work together on issues such as climate change and global health.

China presents a different agenda that doesn’t quite match that of Washington, a testament to the distance between the two sides and how difficult it will be to repair the relationship.

Yang Jiechi, a member of the governing body of the Communist Party, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi plan to urge Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to drop sanctions and restrictions on the Chinese entities and individuals established by the Trump administration. people with knowledge of the plans.

Chinese officials also plan to propose re-establishing regular high-level meetings between the two sides and schedule a virtual summit between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Mr. Biden during April during a world conference on climate change. The White House declined to comment on the prospect of this meeting.

China’s broad agenda reflects greater confidence in Beijing, which in the past has used high-level meetings primarily to react to U.S. initiatives. “China feels it has the wind behind it, the East is rising and the West is fading,” said Daniel Russel, a former Obama State Department official.

The measures China wants to invest include limits on U.S. sales to Chinese companies such as its telecommunications company Huawei Technologies Co. and chip manufacturer Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.

; visa restrictions on Communist Party members, Chinese students and state media journalists; and closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston. Beijing has retaliated in kind and has hit American entities and individuals with similar sanctions.

If these restrictions were removed or relaxed, China would consider eliminating its own countermeasures, people with knowledge of Chinese plans said.

Messrs. Yang and Wang plan to propose a new framework for establishing recurring annual meetings between the two powers to resolve differences in economic, trade, security and other matters. The so-called strategic dialogue format was established during the George W. Bush administration and continued during the Obama years, when Messrs. Blinken and Sullivan were top foreign policy officials.

President Donald Trump abolished the mechanism because his advisers said China used it to bind Americans in endless discussions. The Biden administration has so far shown no interest in resuming talks.

A senior Biden administration official downplayed expectations that the Alaska meeting would lead to any agreement. The official described it as a one-off meeting that did not bode well for “the resumption of a specific dialogue mechanism or the start of a dialogue process.”

Beijing may not expect any concrete results either, said Russel, a former Obama official who is now vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, a think tank. Rather, the Chinese “will try to get a better understanding of where Americans think the relationship will go and what might be possible,” he said.

So far, the Biden administration has continued some of Trump’s policies, including on Tuesday the expansion of sanctions against Chinese officials who he says have undermined Beijing’s Hong Kong autonomy.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued subpoenas to several Chinese companies as part of the U.S. effort to target technology and services that could threaten national security.

Tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on Chinese goods are not expected to be high on the Chinese agenda in Alaska, although Foreign Minister Wang, in a February speech, called for the abolition of trade-related sanctions.

China began contacting Biden’s aides late last year, although China’s foreign ministry said the suggestion for the Alaska meeting came from Washington. “The US side proposed maintaining this high-level strategic dialogue, which we believe is significant,” the ministry told The Wall Street Journal. He did not go into detail, but said, “We hope the two sides can maintain a frank dialogue on issues of mutual interest.”

Chinese officials plan to propose using a virtual climate summit to be attended by world leaders on April 22, Earth Day, to schedule a meeting between Messrs. Xi and Biden, people with knowledge of Beijing’s plans. The two sides have indicated that they are willing to work together to fight global warming and other climate-related issues, although the US is wary of China trying to use the climate problem to get the United States to withdraw from others. areas.

The two leaders have spoken once since the US presidential election, a session that lasted two hours, according to Mr Biden.

Chinese officials indicate there is no room for compromise on sovereignty issues related to Hong Kong and Taiwan. Mr Blinken, who will stop in Alaska on his return from a trip to Japan and South Korea this week, fired a lifeboat against China from Tokyo on Thursday over both issues.

China also plans to propose that both countries create a “vaccine passport” to verify proof of vaccination, according to people familiar with the plans. Chinese officials hope this can help facilitate travel between the two countries.

It could also help China gain recognition for its own-produced vaccines. In recent days, some Chinese embassies have said they would provide visas to foreigners who have received Chinese vaccines.

Beijing’s broad agenda for the meeting shows the Chinese leadership’s growing confidence in the party-state system. The Chinese economy has weathered a trade war with the Trump administration and has bounced back strongly, aided by its early advances in reducing coronavirus infections. Xi, the strongest Chinese leader in decades, enjoys broad support among the Chinese public, Chinese officials say.

Still, Beijing is eager to overcome the turbulence in the relationship with the United States, which has affected business and investor confidence in the world’s second-largest economy.

The Biden team also believes it is in a strong position, having approved a $ 1.9 trillion aid package and begun working with allies on China and other economic issues, he said. say the senior official of the Biden administration.

The symbolism of the meeting is important, the official said, noting the importance of representing both the Secretary of State and the national security adviser in the United States. In the past, China has tried to capitalize on splits between U.S. representatives, the official said.

Having Messrs. Blinken and Sullivan at the session will make it clear, the official said, “there will be no daylight and that the games that China has played in the past, to divide us or try to divide us, are simply not I’m going to work here. “

The U.S. side plans to address the economic pressure China has exerted on Australia by reducing imports after Canberra called for an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus. A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry this week blamed the tension on “Australia’s wrong words and deeds on issues related to China’s sovereignty, security and development interests.”

The session will help each party better understand the other, said the senior Biden administration official. “It’s about communicating the areas where we intend to take steps and it’s about understanding where our Chinese interlocutors are,” the official said.

Write to Lingling Wei at [email protected] and Bob Davis at [email protected]