US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi in Hawaii on Wednesday amid deep deterioration in ties between strategic rivals, their first face-to-face meeting in the past year .
The two largest economies in the world disagree on the treatment of the coronavirus pandemic and China’s decision to impose security legislation in Hong Kong, among the latest spurts of tension that have increased sharply this year.
Yang told Pompeo Washington needs to respect Beijing positions on key issues, end interference in issues like Hong Kong, Taiwan and Xinjiang and work to restore ties, the Chinese affairs ministry said on Thursday. foreign in a press release.
Yang said cooperation between the two countries “is the only correct choice,” the ministry said.
Pompeo stressed “the need for fully reciprocal relations between the two nations in commercial, security and diplomatic interactions,” US Department of State spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.
“He also stressed the need for full transparency and information sharing to fight the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and prevent future epidemics.”
Beijing called the meeting “constructive” and said the two sides agreed to continue their engagement.
The meeting in Honolulu began shortly after 9:00 a.m. (7:00 p.m. GMT) and ended at 3:50 p.m. (0150 GMT Thursday), said a senior State Department official.
As the meeting started, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a law calling for sanctions against those responsible for the suppression of Uighur Muslims in the Chinese region of Xinjiang, which has sparked a threat of retaliation from Beijing.
Meanwhile, foreign ministers from G7 countries, including Pompeo, issued a statement calling on China not to follow Hong Kong’s laws, which critics call an attack on the democratic freedoms of the territory.
Pompeo was energetic in his criticism of Beijing and it was his first known contact with Yang since they discussed the coronavirus by phone on April 15.
Tensions have also increased over China’s neighboring North Korea. The United States and China share their concerns about the country’s nuclear weapons program.
Low point
Experts say US-China relations have bottomed out in years, and in mid-May Trump signed a deal to end a damaging trade war he launched with China went so far as to suggest that he could sever ties with Beijing.
The bill signed by Trump earlier on Wednesday calls for sanctions against Chinese officials responsible for the oppression of Uighur Muslims.
Trump tempered this possibility by saying that he viewed the sanctions requirements of the bill as advisory and not mandatory.
As Trump and his administration heightened rhetoric against China in the run-up to the November US elections, his former national security adviser John Bolton said on Wednesday that the president had asked for help from Chinese president Xi Jinping. to win re-election at a close. – June 2019 meeting outside.
Bolton’s charges are part of a book the US government sued Tuesday to stop him from publishing, arguing that it contained classified information and would jeopardize national security.
Trump responded to Bolton, calling him a “liar” in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. He told Fox News in a separate interview that Bolton had broken the law by including highly classified material in the book.
Neither side presented an agenda for the Hawaii talks, but diplomats and other sources said the meeting was requested by China.
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer also said in a congressional hearing that Chinese authorities have repeatedly affirmed their commitment to purchase more American goods and services as part of a signed Phase 1 trade agreement. in January and that some $ 10 billion in purchases had been made so far.
Lighthizer also said, when asked about exports of products made by Uighurs and other Muslim groups to camps in China, that Washington would “strongly enforce” US laws prohibiting the importation of goods made by forced labor.
Among his criticisms of China, Pompeo said it could have prevented hundreds of thousands of deaths from the global coronavirus pandemic by being more transparent, and accused him of refusing to share information.
Trump began a process of eliminating the United States’ special treatment for Hong Kong in order to punish China for restricting freedoms there, but did not immediately end the privileges that helped the territory remain a world financial center.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
