U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday in Rome and raised concerns over human rights, in only their second face-to-face session as tensions between the two powers run high.
Mr. Blinken expressed opposition to actions by China “that run counter to our values and interests... including actions related to human rights, Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, the East and South China Seas, and Taiwan,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.
Mr. Blinken also noted areas where he said the U.S. and China’s interests intersect and they can work together, including “the DPRK, Burma, Iran, Afghanistan, and the climate crisis.”
The meeting in Rome, where both diplomats were attending the G20 summit, is the first between Mr. Blinken and Mr. Wang since a stormy session in Alaska in March in which the Chinese delegation berated the American side as TV cameras rolled. Tensions are high between the world’s two biggest economies on a plethora of fronts, including trade, human rights, Taiwan and the COVID-19 pandemic.