. . . from its meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Jake Sullivan, the national-security adviser. The two top Biden officials are meeting Yang Jiechi, the CCP’s foreign-affairs chief, and foreign minister Wang Yi tomorrow in Anchorage. The Wall Street Journal has the scoop:
The measures China wants reversed include limits on American sales to Chinese firms such as its telecommunications company Huawei Technologies Co. and chip maker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. ; visa restrictions on Communist Party members, Chinese students and state-media journalists; and closure of the Chinese Consulate in Houston. Beijing has retaliated in kind, hitting American entities and individuals with similar penalties…
Messrs. Yang and Wang plan to propose a new framework for setting up recurring, annual meetings between the two powers to hash out differences in economic, trade, security and other areas. The so-called strategic dialogue format was put in place during the George W. Bush administration and continued through the Obama years, when Messrs. Blinken and Sullivan were top foreign-policy officials…
Chinese officials plan to propose using a virtual climate summit attended by global leaders on April 22, which is Earth Day, to schedule a meeting between Messrs. Xi and Biden, the people with knowledge of Beijing’s plans said. Both sides have indicated that they are willing to work together to fight global warming and other climate-related issues, though the U.S. is wary that China will try to use the climate issue to get the U.S. to back off in other areas.
I wrote last week that if the Biden administration were to stand by its warnings about the regime — by refusing to hold talks with a Leninist party-state currently carrying out genocide and economic bullying campaigns — this meeting would not be taking place.
Nevertheless, to the administration’s credit, top officials have made an impressive show of close collaboration with key U.S. allies in the days immediately leading up to tomorrow’s meeting. Biden held a virtual summit last week with the other Quad democracies, and Blinken and Defense secretary Lloyd Austin are wrapping up a swing through Japan and South Korea. For his part, Sullivan held a call with officials from the U.K., France, and Germany to compare notes on China yesterday.
Now is not the time to squander that leverage by seeking the CCP’s cooperation on climate change and public health, as President Biden and top officials have indicated they would do.
