China and US relations left in limbo after talks
Wang Yi’s rant underlines Beijing’s hardline position during Biden’s trip to ease diplomatic tension
Nothing has changed. Rent-a-rant Wang Yi delivered a verbal broadside during a three-hour tantrum aimed at US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Yi is China’s leading diplomat, an oxymoron if ever there was one.
Earlier, Blinken had been softened up by nearly six hours of talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang during his two-day trip to Beijing. A cozy chat with President Xi Jinping rounded off his whistle-stop visit this week.
Billed as a diplomatic move to defuse tension between the two superpowers, it simply illustrated the threat China poses to the United States and its allies after Wang opened his mouth.
“[He] demanded that the US [should] stop hyping up the ‘China threat theory,’ lift illegal unilateral sanctions against China, abandon suppression of China’s technological development, and refrain from arbitrary interference in China’s internal affairs [including Taiwan],” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated.
Nationalistic nonsense:
- It was the usual rabid rhetoric from Comrade Xi and his gang of Xicophants.
- Anything to deflect attention away from Beijing’s power grab in the Indo-Pacific.
- And the crisis unfolding in the world’s second-largest economy.
It is the US that is intentionally spreading misperceptions.
China Daily
Delve deeper: Among the crucial issues that the talks failed to resolve was restoring a hotline between the Pentagon and China’s military. Blinken revealed there was “no immediate progress.”
Big picture: Washington and Beijing have been locked in what can only be described as Cold War 2.0 for the past four years. It covers a range of issues including economic coercion and high-tech sanctions, as well as China’s bullying in the South China Sea and threats to Taiwan.
Between the lines: Reaction to Blinken’s visit has been divided. “This just looked like another instance of the United States caving into China,” Gordon G Chang, the author of The Coming Collapse of China, said in a tweet after a TV interview.
Alternative view: “Those not blindly loyal to the US can clearly see that it is the US side that is intentionally creating and spreading misperceptions about China and making efforts to suppress China’s development,” state-run China Daily said in an editorial.
China Factor comment: As talks in Beijing ended, The Wall Street Journal reported that “China and Cuba” plan to establish a “joint military facility on the island.” This “could lead to the stationing of Chinese troops just 100 miles off Florida’s coast.” So much for diplomacy.