First High-level meeting with Chinese officials to be held in Alaska by Biden administration next week
Senior U.S. officials will hold high-level, in-person talks with Chinese representatives next week in Alaska for the first time since President Joe Biden took office.
The meeting will happen in Anchorage, Alaska on March 18. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will meet with the People’s Republic of China’s Yang Jiechi, a member of the Communist Party’s top decision-making body, and Wang Yi, the foreign minister.
“The meeting will take place following Secretary Blinken’s meetings with two of our closest regional allies in Tokyo and Seoul,” the State Department said in a statement on Wednesday. Blinken is scheduled to make his first trip abroad as secretary of state next week.
Blinken and Yang had their first call and discussed a range of issues in February. The top U.S. diplomat emphasized human rights and the ongoing military coup in Myanmar, while Yang called for Washington to respect China’s sovereignty.
It was under the Trump administration, the tension between Beijing and Washington rose, which escalated a trade war and moved to ban Chinese technology companies from doing business in the United States.
Biden, who spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping last month, has previously said that his approach to China would be different from Trump’s.
Trump’s administration blamed China for a wide range of grievances, including intellectual property theft, unfair trade practices, and also the coronavirus pandemic.
“We will confront China’s economic abuses,” Biden explained in a speech at the State Department. He described how Beijing is America’s “most serious competitor.
Biden announced a new Defense Department task force aimed at evaluating the U.S. military’s China strategy last month.
In his first visit as commander in chief to the Pentagon, Biden said, “That’s how we’ll meet the China challenge and ensure the American people win the competition in the future.”
