Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who ambushed a stunned U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during an early encounter in 2021 with allegations that America has a worse human rights record than China, gave Blinken one more political lecture on Saturday.
Wang told Blinken that China “does not seek hegemony or power politics” like the United States does, and it “has the best record among major powers on peace and security issues.”
Wang scolded Blinken on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Laos, telling him the U.S. must show more respect for the Chinese Communist Party’s “aspiration to seek happiness for the people and rejuvenation for the nation while adhering to the path of peaceful development.”
“Both sides should work together to promote stable, healthy, and sustainable development of China-U.S. relations,” Wang said, strongly hinting that America has a lot more work to do than China.
“The bilateral relationship is at a critical juncture where it needs to be stabilized and improved, requiring continuous adjustment of direction, risk management, proper handling of differences, elimination of interference and promotion of cooperation,” he said.
Wang tossed in some boilerplate threats against Taiwan, warning that every “provocation” by “Taiwan independence forces” will be met with stern “countermeasures,” and then threatened America’s allies in the Philippines for good measure. Wang told Blinken that the United States must “stop fanning the flames, disrupting, and undermining maritime stability” by supporting Filipino claims to their own territorial waters in the South China Sea.
The State Department readout of the encounter said nothing about Wang’s lectures and threats, instead blandly claiming that Wang and Blinken enjoyed “open and productive discussions on key bilateral, regional, and global issues.”
The State Department noted that Blinken pressed a few key issues with Wang, including China’s promises to help curb the fentanyl epidemic, resolve “the cases of American citizens who are wrongfully detained or subject to exit bans in China,” and maintain “peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
“The Secretary raised concerns about the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] destabilizing actions in the South China Sea, including at Second Thomas Shoal, and affirmed the United States’ support for freedom of navigation and overflight and the peaceful resolution of disputes, consistent with international law,” the State Department said, referring to China’s bullying of the Philippines.
The readout said Blinken expressed “serious concern” with China’s support for Russia during its invasion of Ukraine, and asked for China’s help with North Korea’s provocations and the “deteriorating situation in Burma,” where a military junta seized power in 2021 and appears to be losing a civil war against resistance fighters.
Beijing does not seem inclined to do anything about North Korea, which is still working on developing nuclear missiles and has lately been sending balloons full of trash over the border into South Korea. The U.S. Treasury Department announced a new wave of sanctions against Chinese entities accused of assisting North Korea’s missile program last week.
With a little luck, Blinken might be able to get some assistance from China with Burma/Myanmar before the Biden administration wraps up in January. The Chinese are reportedly running out of patience with the inept Burmese junta, which many observers suspect Beijing covertly supported at first. The Chinese tried to help coup leader Min Aung Hlaing consolidate power at first but his failure to defeat the resistance has exasperated Beijing, which sees its economic interests in Myanmar threatened by violent unrest and the junta’s inability to manage the affairs of the territory it controls.
Wang and senior Chinese Politburo member Yang Jiechi famously blindsided Blinken at a summit in Alaska in March 2021. Blinken thought he would have a camera-ready opportunity to build some stature and diplomatic credibility by dunking on China’s appalling human rights record, only for Wang and Yang to turn the tables by citing the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement as evidence the U.S. lacked standing to criticize anyone else for human rights.
Wang blitzed Blinken again in a January 2022 phone call, blasting the Biden administration for expressing unease over China hosting the Winter Olympics.
“The U.S. continues to make wrong words and deeds about China, causing new shocks to the relationship between the two countries. Pressure will only make the Chinese people more united, and confrontation will not prevent China from becoming stronger,” Wang told Blinken in comments the State Department decided not to quote when it prepared a transcript of the call.
“The top priority right now is that the U.S. should stop interfering with the Beijing Winter Olympics, stop playing with fire on the Taiwan issue, and stop creating all kinds of anti-China small circles,” Wang said.
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