Tag: Wang Yi

Blinken Meets Xi as China and the U.S. Try to Ease Tensions

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Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with Xi Jinping, China’s leader, on Monday in Beijing, as the two governments sought to pull relations out of a deep chill that has raised global concerns about the growing risk of a conflict between them. The 35-minute meeting, which capped a two-day visit by Mr. Blinken, sent a signal, at least for now, that the United States and China do not want their relationship to be defined by open hostility, and that they recognize that their rivalry and their diplomatic efforts carry…

China Wants to Set the Terms of Any ‘Thaw’ With the U.S.

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For a few weeks, a flurry of meetings between American and Chinese officials seemed to signal that the two countries were trying to reduce tensions, after months of rancor and frozen high-level contacts raised concerns about the risk of a conflict, accidental or otherwise. First the U.S. national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, met with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, in Vienna, in May. Then the two countries’ top commerce officials held talks, the first bilateral cabinet-level meeting in Washington in months. China’s ambassador also arrived in Washington last week, finally…

China’s Economic Needs May Take a Back Seat to Security

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To revive its sluggish economy, China set out this year to woo foreign investors and stabilize its ties with the West. But these goals are colliding with what China’s leader, Xi Jinping, considers the paramount priority: bolstering national security in a world he sees as full of threats. Mr. Xi has warned that China must fight back against a campaign by the United States to contain and suppress the country’s rise. In this worldview, foreign rivals are using spies to weaken China’s economy; Russia is not treated as a pariah…

China’s Role in Iran-Saudi Deal Shows Xi’s Challenge to U.S.-led Order

Chin@Strategy

When Beijing stepped into the role of mediator this week in the surprise rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, it signaled a new level of ambition for Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, who has sought to burnish his image as a global statesman in an escalating rivalry with the United States. China’s top diplomat quickly attributed the success of four days of secret talks in reviving diplomatic ties between the two archrivals to Mr. Xi’s leadership, which he said demonstrated “the bearing of a great power.” By taking credit for…

China Repeats Call for Cease-Fire in Ukraine and Peace Talks

Chin@Strategy

After a drum roll of diplomatic activity suggesting that China was poised to play a more energetic role in seeking peace in Ukraine, Beijing has issued a position paper that reprises its established views on the war, calling for an end to fighting while avoiding demands — or words like “invasion” — that could hurt its ties with Russia. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs released the paper on Friday, the anniversary of Russia’s invasion, and after China’s most senior diplomat, Wang Yi, had visited Europe, telling a security forum…

Putin and Biden Shore Up Alliances in Dueling Appearances

Chin@Strategy

WARSAW — In a day of dueling efforts to shore up allegiances, President Biden wrapped up a three-day trip to Europe Wednesday with a promise of America’s commitment to its allies as President Vladimir V. Putin warmly welcomed China’s top diplomat to Moscow and rallied pro-war Russians. With the anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine approaching, Mr. Biden met in Warsaw with leaders from NATO’s eastern flank, acknowledging that “you know better than anyone what’s at stake in this conflict, not just for Ukraine, but for the freedom of democracies…

China Says U.S. Is ‘Not Qualified’ to Issue Orders on Arms

Chin@Strategy

Bristling against U.S. claims that Beijing may be poised to send “lethal support” to help Russia’s war in Ukraine, China accused the Biden administration on Monday of spreading lies and defended China’s close partnership with Russia. The remarks, by a spokesman from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, were part of a series of diplomatic moves as China’s leader, Xi Jinping, tries to preserve ties with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia while casting Beijing as a blameless onlooker in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, trying only to coax Moscow and…

U.S. Warnings to China on Arms Aid for Russia’s War Portend Global Rift

Chin@Strategy

MADRID — When the top foreign policy officials from the United States and China appeared this weekend at Europe’s premiere global security conference, both stressed that their governments were not seeking a new Cold War. Yet, new warnings by U.S. officials that China may be preparing to give weapons and ammunition to Russia ‌for its war on Ukraine portend the worst of the old Cold War. In that decades-long shadow struggle, the United States, the Soviet Union and occasionally China poured military resources into protracted wars around the globe, engaging…

Blinken Meets With Chinese Official Amid Spy Balloon Furor, U.S. Says

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Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with China’s top foreign policy official on Saturday night in Munich, a State Department official said, a resumption of diplomacy between Washington and Beijing after a breakdown that followed the Biden administration’s downing of a Chinese spy balloon over U.S. territory. The impromptu meeting, on the margins of a security conference, happened while the two nations were still very much at odds. Hours earlier, the Chinese official, Wang Yi, had doubled down on China’s claim that the balloon was a “civilian” research craft…

Chinese Official Calls U.S. Response to Balloon ‘Absurd and Hysterical’

Chin@Strategy

China’s top foreign policy official on Saturday mocked America’s response to a recent Chinese spy balloon overflight, calling the U.S. actions “absurd and hysterical” and an effort “to divert attention from its domestic problems.” The official, Wang Yi, the Chinese Communist Party’s senior member for foreign affairs, repeated his government’s claim that the balloon, which flew over several U.S. states this month before President Biden ordered it shot down, was a “civilian” craft blown off course by high winds. He made the remarks in a speech to the Munich Security…