Alaska talks: Is the US attempting to show China right into a pariah?

A two-day assembly between prime US diplomats and high-level Chinese representatives acquired underway in Alaska on Thursday, capping off a whirlwind week of Asia diplomacy for Washington.
After talks with Japan and South Korea earlier this week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken got here away with refreshed commitments to a “shared vision” for a “free and open” Indo Pacific, whereas slamming China for utilizing “coercion and aggression to get its way.”
In Alaska, Blinken was joined by US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan for what become an airing of grievances with prime Chinese Communist Party diplomat Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
The White House had mentioned forward of the talks that the Biden administration’s first high-level, in-person assembly with Chinese representatives was being held from a “position of strength” and “in lockstep” with allies and companions.
At the assembly, Yang mentioned US had a “cold war mentality,” and used its army and financial energy to “incite other countries to attack China.”
Blinken accused China of “threatening the rules-based order that maintains global stability” with its insurance policies on Hong Kong, Taiwan and Xinjiang.
The prime US diplomat had requested reporters to stay within the room to listen to his response to Yang’s remarks and US criticism of China’s insurance policies. This shouldn’t be regular protocol at such high-level talks, that are normally held behind closed doorways.
Earlier this week, Biden administration officers mentioned the talks had been geared toward ensuring Beijing knew that US diplomats would ship the identical powerful message in personal as they’ve in public.
No thaw for frosty US-China relations
China had portrayed the occasion as step one in direction of a détente, following 4 years of rigidity beneath former US President Donald Trump.Ahead of the talks, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian mentioned the Chinese diplomats had been “invited by the US for a high-level strategic dialogue,” which seeks to “bring the China-US relationship back to the right track of sound and steady development.”
However, Blinken rejected that notion in entrance of the House Foreign Affairs Committee final week.
“This is not a strategic dialogue. There’s no intent at this point for a series of follow-on engagements,” he mentioned.
“Those engagements … really have to be based on the proposition that we’re seeing tangible progress and tangible outcomes on the issues of concern to us with China,” he added.
“China continues to push for what it calls a new type of great power relationship,” Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project on the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), instructed DW.
“The ‘strategic dialogue’ frame fits their notion that the US and China are the leading powers that should make important decisions together about the world. The US shouldn’t buy into that,” she added.
Biden continues Trump’s laborious line on China
However, at this level, “tangible outcomes” from Beijing over Washington’s considerations about human rights, democracy and strategic stability appear far off.
The US just lately slammed Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy motion. This week, the US imposed sanctions on 24 Chinese officers in response to a brand new election regulation imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing. The regulation would all however guarantee pro-mainland events management over the semi-autonomous territory’s management.
Blinken additionally didn’t change the Trump administration’s designation of “genocide” utilized to China’s mass-internment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province.
On strategic points, the US says Beijing continues to defy worldwide maritime regulation within the South China Sea by claiming sovereignty over many of the waterways, and increase the People’s Liberation Army to again up these claims.
US army officers are additionally warning of the specter of army battle over Taiwan, which Beijing considers a breakaway province, and has lengthy been a sizzling level in US-China relations.
Last week, China’s Foreign Ministry rejected US criticism and demanded Washington “respect China’s sovereignty, security and development interests, and stop interfering in China’s internal affairs.”
The Biden administration appears like it is going to keep the course on the hardline China coverage from the earlier administration. However, China’s description of the Alaska talks as a “return to dialogue” signifies Beijing had excessive hopes the US would soften its coverage.
“Part of the heated exchange you have in Alaska was due to disappointment on the Chinese side that the US is not seeking that route,” Kharis Templeman, a political scientist at Stanford University’s Hoover Institute, instructed DW.
“From their perspective, they think it is the US that should improve the relationship. The fact that the Biden administration is not doing that is upsetting to the Chinese,” he added.
Beijing derides US alliance-building
However, not like the Trump administration, Biden is confronting China with out alienating Washington’s Asian allies on the similar time.
Blinken mentioned throughout Thursday’s talks that international locations world wide have a “deep satisfaction that the US is back” and “deep concern” about China’s actions, including that the administration is “committed to leading with diplomacy … and to strengthening the rules-based international order.”
“That system is not an abstraction,” he mentioned.
On the eve of Thursday’s talks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian mentioned it was “useless” for the US to have interaction in “microphone diplomacy to rally against and put pressure on China.”
“Beijing will huff and puff, deride and diminish America’s allies. However, they are acutely aware of the power of alliances — it’s one of the reasons they spend so much time trying to drive wedges in between relationships,” mentioned Roy Kamphausen, president of the National Bureau of Asian Research in Washington.
“While they relish their own strategic freedom of maneuver unencumbered by alliance relationships, they also know that when America acts in concert and partnership with its allies, Beijing is disadvantaged. And the CCP really doesn’t like being singled out,” Kamphausen instructed DW.
Glaser from the CSIS mentioned that this week’s Indo Pacific conferences have despatched a sign to Beijing that the US shouldn’t be in decline and that Washington’s alliances are robust.
“This provides meat on the bones of a policy that seeks to deal with China from a position of strength,” she mentioned.
However, there may be presently little assure {that a} stronger US-Asia axis will have an effect on how Beijing pursues its pursuits.
“There is a lot of work to be done to build back America and bolster alliances before we can alter China’s assessment that ‘the East is rising and the West is declining,’” Glaser mentioned.
“And it remains to be seen if that goal is achievable.”