Continuing the confrontational tone that was on display ata meeting between US and Chinese officials in Alaska in March,Xie said it appeared that Americans were trying to find a new sense of national purpose by fomenting a new cold war with China.
“The US keeps making an issue with China,” Xie said.
“We urge the United States to change its highly misguided mindset and dangerous policy.”
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According to reports in Chinese state-owned media,Xie issued specific requests for Washington to stop seeking the extradition ofHuwaei executive Meng Wanzhou from Canada and to lift restrictions on Chinese students who want to study in the US.
No specific announcements were agreed on at the four-hour meeting,which has been seen as a prelude to an eventual summit between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
A date for the leaders’ first in-person meeting since Biden’s inauguration has yet to be set,but the G20 summit in Italy in October is seen as a strong possibility.
A visit to China was initially excluded from Sherman’s Asia trip after the Chinese government declined to make her equivalent counterpart Le Yucheng available for a meeting. China at first only offered a meeting with Xie,the fifth-ranking Chinese foreign ministry official.
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In the end,Sherman also met with Foreign Minister Wang Yi during her trip.
Ned Price,a spokesman for the US Department of State,said that Sherman had raised concerns about “a range of PRC[People’s Republic of China] actions that run counter to our values and interests and those of our allies and partners,and that undermine the international rules-based order”.
He said these included “Beijing’s anti-democratic crackdown in Hong Kong”,the “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity” in Xinjiang and human rights abuses in Tibet.
Underscoring how deep the divide between the two nations has become,the American list of grievances also included restrictions on press freedom,Beijing’s conduct in cyberspace and its behaviour in the East and South China Seas.
Sherman also took issue with Beijing’s unwillingness to co-operate with the World Health Organisation ona second investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sherman told her counterpart that the US welcomes the “stiff competition” between the countries but that it does not seek conflict with China.
The US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin was expected to criticise China for its conduct in the South China Sea during a speech in Singapore on Tuesday night.
with Reuters
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