White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed Wednesday that the United States will host Chinese officials in Anchorage, Alaska, next week for the first substantial bilateral talks under President Biden.
The meeting will take place on March 18 or 19 with Secretary of State Tony Blinken and White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese officials, including Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
“It was important to us that the first meeting of this administration with Chinese officials be held on American soil and that it take place after we have met and consulted closely with partners and allies from both Asia and Europe,” he said. say Psaki in his daily press session.
“The meeting is an opportunity to address a wide range of issues, including those in which we have deep disagreements,” Psaki said.
“We intend to discuss our expectations and be frank in explaining Beijing’s actions and behavior … and our concern for the challenges they pose to the security and values of the United States and our allies and partners.”
Psaki said there will also be talk of partnership with China.
“We also talk about areas where we can cooperate, mutual interests. And we come to these discussions, of course, with clear eyes, ”he said.
“The meeting also offers an opportunity to emphasize how the United States will defend the rules-based international system and a free and open Indo-Pacific. As the President said, we focus our relationship with the Chinese from a position of strength with our allies and partners “.
Last month, Biden had an introductory phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping. So far, Biden has maintained many of former President Donald Trump’s policies toward China. It has not relaxed tariffs on Chinese goods or relaxed sanctions against officials.
Trump claimed during the presidential campaign that China would “own” the United States if Biden won, in part because of his son Hunter Biden’s trade relations with China.
As president, Trump initially cultivated a personal relationship with Xi and joked that he would like to become “lifelong president” as the communist leader had done.
But the good worsened after Trump engaged in a trade war aimed at forcing an agreement to reform economic policies. The Trump administration also worked to convince allies to ban Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei from 5G infrastructure projects for security reasons.
US-China relations fell last year during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump authorized sanctions against Chinese officials for removing Hong Kong’s political autonomy and for mistreating Uighur Muslims. He promised to “separate” the United States and China economically in response to the deception in the first data on COVID-19.
Trump last month criticized Biden for rejoining the World Health Organization without insisting that China pay a larger share of WHO spending. Trump left the organization for accepting false Chinese data on COVID-19 before the virus spread and caused an economically ruinous and deadly pandemic.