Secretary of State Antony Blinken met China’s top foreign policy official as the two countries look to maintain dialog even after ties were roiled anew by allegations that Chinese hackers had breached US officials’ email accounts.
(Bloomberg) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken met China’s top foreign policy official as the two countries look to maintain dialog even after ties were roiled anew by allegations that Chinese hackers had breached US officials’ email accounts.
Blinken raised the issue of Chinese hacking when he met Wang Yi in Jakarta, their second meeting in less than two months. The State Department declined to say whether he called out Wang over revelations in the last two days that hackers accessed email accounts at the State and Commerce Departments, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
Microsoft Corp. said the latest breach was orchestrated by hackers based in China. Beijing dismissed the allegation.
Neither side specifically mentioned the alleged hack in their readouts of the meeting, highlighting how the two governments are looking to establish some sense of order even as they air their grievances. The US called the talks “candid and constructive,” while Beijing blasted Washington for “containing and suppressing China’s economic, trade and technology development.”
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller’s phrasing about the talks was almost identical to that used when Blinken met Wang and other top officials in Beijing last month.
He described the meeting as part of “ongoing efforts to maintain open channels of communication to clarify US interests across a wide range of issues and to responsibly manage competition.”
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China’s description of the meeting was harder-edged. While also calling the meeting constructive, the Foreign Ministry said Wang told Blinken the US must remove all the “unjustifiable, illegal sanctions” against China.
China has chafed at the Biden administration’s refusal to lift sanctions imposed by the Trump administration in 2018 on Defense Minister Li Shangfu. The Treasury Department has also imposed sanctions on Chinese officials and companies over a range of other issues, including alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang, cooperation with Iran and Russia, and a crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong.
Xi and Biden’s governments have tried to rebuild lines of communication, while also fighting a tit-for-tat trade war that’s seen both sides restrict exports critical to advanced technologies. The Biden administration is keen to mend fences with America’s main geopolitical rival, partly to reassure allies that it isn’t dragging them into a conflict.
Blinken’s visit to China was followed by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen last weekend, and US climate envoy John Kerry is set to arrive in Beijing on Sunday for more talks.
Chinese officials have reason to reduce frictions: it would give them room to focus on jump-starting the economic recovery.
Blinken and Wang’s talks on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Jakarta lasted about 90 minutes, longer than the planned hour, according to US officials.
Wang made clear China’s problems with the US on a range of topics, while Blinken said the US would protect its interests, the officials said. The two also discussed Beijing military activities in the South China Sea, days after the People’s Liberation Army sent its largest sortie of warplanes into sensitive areas near Taiwan in three months.
Blinken’s meeting with Wang last month in Beijing was the thorniest of his visits to China, with Wang blasting “illegal” US sanctions and putting the blame on Washington for worsening ties.
–With assistance from Jacob Gu.
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