China Unloads Grievances in U.S. Talks, Says Ties in ‘Stalemate’

(Bloomberg) -- China lashed out at U.S. policies in a tense start to high-level talks in Tianjin, handing the Americans lists of demands and declaring the relationship between the world’s two largest economies in a “stalemate.”

Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng told visiting Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman that some Americans seek to portray China as an “imagined enemy,” according to accounts released by the Foreign Ministry at the first talks between the two sides since an acrimonious exchange in Alaska earlier this year.

“The China-U.S. relationship is now in a stalemate and faces serious difficulties,” he said, according to the ministry. Still, Xie said Beijing was willing to seek common ground and deal with the U.S. on an equal footing.

The Chinese diplomats also presented Sherman with two lists of demands, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. One was “U.S. wrongdoings that must stop” and the other was a list of “key individual cases that China has concerns with,” Xinhua said, citing a briefing by Xie.

The U.S. had has not yet released its account of the Xie-Sherman meeting.

The challenges facing Washington and Beijing with these meetings is showing they can get to grips with their disagreements without appearing to domestic audiences that they are giving ground. That could prove a tall order given the sour feelings many in the Chinese government still harbor after the trade war that erupted in the Trump years, and amid disagreements overs Xinjiang, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Earlier this month Chinese President Xi Jinping signaled that his government will be more assertive in its conduct on the world stage, saying at a speech marking the 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party that his people “will never allow any foreign forces to bully, coerce and enslave us.”

The remarks by Xie show that the talks in Tianjin “are indeed very tough” and “look like a continuation of the Anchorage meeting,” said Zhu Feng, a professor of international relations at Nanjing University. “His comments are also aimed at giving the Chinese public confidence that the government will not succumb in the face of heightened pressure from the U.S. side.”

Xie also used the meeting with Sherman to take a swipe at her boss, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who said in March that Washington’s dealings with Beijing were the defining test of the century.

“The Chinese people look at things with eyes wide open,” Xie said. “They see the competitive, collaborative and adversarial rhetoric as a thinly veiled attempt to contain and suppress China.”

Among the demands on the Chinese diplomats’ lists were revoking sanctions on Chinese officials and government departments, and ending U.S. efforts to extradite Huawei Technologies Co. Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou from Canada, an issue that has been a major sticking point between the nations.

Red Lines

Sherman was slated to meet later Monday with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. If the talks in the Tianjin, about 60 miles east of the capital Beijing, are fruitful, they could set up a meeting between President Joe Biden and Xi, possibly at a Group of 20 summit in October.

Her visit follows a series of Biden administration actions challenging China’s red lines on what it considers its internal affairs, prompting Beijing to protest and announce fresh sanctions against Americans including former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

Sherman intended to raise concerns about human rights in places such as Hong Kong and Xinjiang while seeking to reassure Beijing that the U.S. isn’t building an anti-China coalition, senior administration officials told reporters Saturday. High-level engagement is needed to ensure responsible management of U.S.-China ties and cooperation on issues of common interest, such as climate change, said the officials, who asked not to be identified because the meeting’s agenda hasn’t been made public.

Sherman’s trip is part of a broad U.S. diplomatic push in the region, as Biden attempts to extract American forces from Afghanistan and bolster Washington’s frayed foreign relationships to better answer the challenges posed by China. Blinken is slated to visit India this week while Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is traveling to Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines.

In Tokyo last week, Sherman along with her Japanese and South Korean counterparts discussed preserving peace in the Taiwan Strait, a reference to China’s military pressure campaign against the democratically ruled island. The statement prompted protests from China, with Zhao saying the U.S. and Japan are “stuck in the Cold War mentality” and deliberately seeking bloc confrontation and attempting to form an “anti-China encirclement.”

Separately, the U.S. and numerous allies blamed the Microsoft Exchange hack to actors affiliated with the Chinese government and said Beijing’s leadership was responsible for an array of “malicious cyber activities.” The U.S. also charged four Chinese nationals linked to the Ministry of State Security with a campaign to hack into computer systems of companies, universities and government entities.

China and the U.S. are also at odds over the coronavirus. The White House said on Thursday China was “stonewalling” a World Health Organization probe into the origins of SARS-CoV-2, including the possibility it escaped from a lab. Chinese officials said earlier that day there was no evidence for the theory the virus leaked from a facility in Wuhan, the city where it was first observed in humans, and that no further resources should be put into such a probe.

Still, Sherman’s discussions with Chinese diplomats offer both nations a chance to manage their differences.

“There won’t be any substantial breakthrough,” said Zhu, the academic. “Hopefully behind closed doors the two sides could try to steer the meeting towards stabilization of ties.”

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