US talks up ‘strong hand’ ahead of meeting with Xi Jinping’s advisers

Senior officials from the world’s two most powerful countries will meet in Anchorage with low expectations.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. Picture: AFP

The Biden administration believes it has an “increasingly strong hand” ahead of a tone-­setting meeting in Alaska, where it is expected to reject demands from Beijing to remove sanctions imposed during the Trump era.

On Friday morning (AEST), senior officials from the world’s two most powerful countries will meet in Anchorage with low expectations, divergent agendas and a profound lack of trust.

In a briefing before the meeting, senior Biden administration officials in Washington said the US would be “very, very blunt” with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s senior advisers.

“We’re of course coming to these discussions with a very clear-eyed view about (China)’s pretty poor track record of keeping its promises,” said a US official who asked to not be identified. “They talk about being a responsible champion of the multilateral system, but their deeds fall far short of that in many, many respects.”

The Americans — represented by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan — will bring up a range of subjects Beijing has described as “red lines”, including human rights abuses in Xinjiang, the political crackdown in Hong Kong, incursions into the East China Sea, the militarisation of the South China Sea, and threats to Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province.

Beijing’s economic coercion of Australia and its “malicious cyber activity” will also be on the agenda, according to US officials.

Meanwhile, Mr Xi’s senior ­advisers — diplomat Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi — are expected to ask for an unwinding of sanctions imposed on China by the Trump administration. The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr Xi’s advisers will ask for the removal of sanctions on Chinese tech giant Huawei and chip maker Semiconductor Manufacturing International, as well as the ending of restrictions on visas for Communist Party members, Chinese students and state-media journalists.

Citing people with knowledge of the plans, the Journal also reported that the Chinese officials would propose the re-establishment of regular high-level meetings between the two sides and the scheduling of a virtual summit between Mr Xi and President Joe Biden in April during a global conference on climate change.

China’s official news agency Xinhua said the US needed to be “more pragmatic”. “Although resetting China-US relations is ­difficult and can by no means be done overnight, a first step needs to be taken — the Alaska dialogue could be this very step,” Xinhua wrote in an editorial.

Ahead of the meeting, Mr Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin this week visited their counterparts in Japan and South Korea.

China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian responded angrily on Wednesday evening to a joint statement by the US and Japan, which mentioned shared concerns about Taiwan, the South China Sea and the treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang.

“Japan, driven by the selfish aim to check China’s revitalisation, willingly stoops to acting as a strategic vassal of the United States, going so far as to break faith, harm relations with China, invite the wolf into the house, and betray the collective interests of the whole region,” the Chinese spokesman said in Beijing.

“Such despicable behaviour is deeply unpopular.”

Earlier this week, Mr Zhao dismissed comments by Mr Biden’s Indo-Pacific co-ordinator Kurt Campbell saying Beijing would have to stop its economic coercion of Australia if it wants to improve relations with the US.

At the briefing in Washington, senior Biden officials said working with allies and partners was not just “choreography” but a way of increasing America’s leverage.

“We are coming in (to the meeting in Alaska) with what we feel is an … increasingly strong hand,” the official said.

Chong Ja Ian, an expert on Chinese foreign relations at the National University of Singapore, said China was still working out how to deal with the new US ­administration.

“The Biden approach is a bit different. It keeps some of the hard edges of the Trump approach,” Dr Chong told The Australian. “There’s this other element where it’s trying to be more appealing and more systematic in its approach — especially towards allies.

“I think the Chinese side is still trying to adjust because it’s not going to be as straightforward as during the Trump years.”