NUSA DUA, Indonesia – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Beijing of its support for Russia in a meeting with its Chinese counterpart, a sign of how the invasion of Ukraine is complicating efforts to maintain relations between the two superpowers on a more stable basis.
“More than four months after this brutal invasion, the PRC is still on the side of Russia,” Mr. Blinken, using the acronym of the People’s Republic of China, at a press conference after the meeting. He noted Beijing’s support for Moscow at the United Nations, the dissemination of Russian conversation points through Chinese state media, and joint military exercises with Moscow.
The Biden administration wants to make sure that China, which this year signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement with Russia amid talk of a “limitless” partnership, does not support Moscow in the Ukrainian war.
China has presented itself as neutral in the war, but Chinese diplomats have repeatedly said that Russia’s concerns about the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are legitimate and have said that Western powers, the US in particular, are to blame for pushing Moscow into a corner.
The meeting in Bali was the latest in a recent resumption of dialogue between top Chinese and US officials.
Photo: stefani reynolds / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images
“I don’t think China is involved in a way that suggests neutrality,” Mr. Blinken, telling reporters that he conveyed this concern to Mr. Wang.
Mr. Blinken refused to characterize Mr. Wang in Russia’s complaints. Mr. Wang did not schedule his own press conference and did not answer questions from reporters about whether China supports Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
U.S. officials have tried both to push China to abandon support for Russia and to publicly criticize Beijing for its support of Moscow, a way of pressuring the two governments.
Mr. Wang said before meeting with Mr. Blinken said that “it is important to remain committed to the principles set out by President Xi Jinping — mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and winning cooperation — because this serves the interests of both countries, two peoples.”
The harsh tone of Mr. Blinken and the relatively fresh greetings exchanged by Chinese and American envoys came a day after Western diplomats harshly criticized Russia for contributing to rising food and energy prices, trying to isolate Moscow from Bali.
In addition to the question of Russia, Mr. Blinken said he was looking for cooperation in some areas, including efforts to curb climate change. However, he also said he raised key issues that divide countries: China’s attitude toward Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing claims is part of China, as well as the Hong Kong Communist Party government. , Tibet and the northwestern region of Xinjiang. .
“We are committed to managing this relationship, this competition, responsibly, as the world expects us to do, leading with diplomacy,” he said.
According to a reading from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Wang told Mr. Blinken said that if the US wanted to avoid conflict, they would have to stop interfering in China’s internal affairs and refrain from harming China’s interests in the name of human rights. He also pointed to what he described as rampant synophobia in Washington.
“If this‘ inflation threat ’is allowed to develop, U.S. policy toward China will reach a dead end,” Wang said, according to the reading.
A senior State Department official described the five-hour meeting between Messrs. Blinken and Wang as constructive and professional, but also exceptionally sincere, with neither party retracting its views on the Blinken and Wang’s policies. another.
In general, U.S. officials are eager to manage a relationship with China that they describe as highly competitive, with room for cooperation in selected areas and possible clashes in others. Beijing has accused Washington of trying to recruit other countries in the region to help undermine China’s rise, which it denounces as a renaissance of Cold War-style containment.
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The Blinken-Wang meeting is at least the fifth exchange between senior US and Chinese officials since early June, after a pause of many months in which relations already at their lowest point in decades were even more so. . Both governments are looking for ways to stabilize, if not improve ties, according to current and former officials.
“There is no substitute for face-to-face or sometimes mask-to-mask diplomacy,” Mr. Blinken before the meeting.
President Biden and Chinese leader Xi are expected to speak by phone in the coming days, some officials said, in their first conversation since March. Mr. Biden is looking to eliminate some of the Trump-era tariffs on Chinese imports, a move that will likely be seen positively in Beijing.
The issue of U.S. tariffs on Chinese products did not arise, said the senior State Department official, who declined to say whether the recent compromise could lead to a call between Messrs. Biden and Xi.
Mr Biden cannot afford a new crisis, some of current and former officials said, as his poll numbers drop and he talks about inflation on the domestic front and tries to keep allies united to support Ukraine against Russia. . Meanwhile, Mr. Xi is seeking a third five-year term as leader of the Communist Party in a break with recent precedents and faces a collapsed economy and public outcry over coronavirus blockades.
At the end of last month, NATO members released a new guidance document for the military alliance, highlighting China for the first time and calling it a challenge for European and Atlantic security. Last week, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Christopher Wray, and Ken McCallum, director general of the British national security service, MI5, made a rare joint call to companies on the threat of espionage Chinese to patented information.
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Beijing responded to Messrs. Wray and McCallum’s comments, saying they exposed a “zero-sum mentality and an ideological prejudice rooted in the Cold War.”
At high-level meetings that resumed in early June, top Chinese and U.S. officials have discussed global security, military, trade, and economic issues. For Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, her recent call with her Chinese counterpart was the first exchange published since October. For the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army General Mark Milley, he was the first in 18 months.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has had more regular meetings with his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi.
—Jing Yang contributed to this article.
Write to William Mauldin at william.mauldin@wsj.com and Charles Hutzler at charles.hutzler@wsj.com
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