This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/26/world/asia/china-us-wendy-sherman.html

The article has changed 7 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
In Stinging Rebuke, China Tells U.S. Diplomat That Its Rise Can’t Be Stopped Biden’s China Strategy Meets Resistance at the Negotiating Table
(about 7 hours later)
A senior Chinese diplomat on Monday bluntly warned the visiting American deputy secretary of state, Wendy R. Sherman, that the Biden administration’s strategy of pursuing both confrontation and cooperation with Beijing was sure to fail. As it seeks to manage an increasingly testy relationship, the Biden administration has mapped out a strategy of confronting China on points of dispute, while leaving the door open for cooperation against global threats.
China’s vice foreign minister, Xie Feng, told Ms. Sherman that the United States’ “competitive, collaborative and adversarial rhetoric” was a “thinly veiled attempt to contain and suppress China,” according to a summary of Mr. Xie’s comments that the Chinese foreign ministry sent to reporters. On Monday, China seemed to slam the door on the idea that the two countries could collaborate one day and clash the next.
Ms. Sherman’s meetings offered the latest gauge of the Biden administration’s strategy of stepping up pressure against the Chinese government on several fronts, including human rights and internet hacking, while seeking to work together on global problems like climate change and international health threats. Mr. Xie’s remarks underscored the anger that has been building in China toward the United States, undermining the chances that the approach will work. Talks with Deputy Secretary of State Wendy R. Sherman — the highest-ranking administration official to visit China so far — began with a barrage of public criticism from the Chinese side and ended with little sign that the two combative powers were closer to narrowing their disagreements.
“It seems that a whole-of-government and whole-of-society campaign is being waged to bring China down,” Mr. Xie told Ms. Sherman, according to the summaries of his comments, which were also issued on the Chinese foreign ministry website. “Do bad things and get good results. How is that ever possible?” “The relationship between the United States and the P.R.C. is a complex one, and our policy is very complex as a result,” Ms. Sherman said in a telephone interview after the meetings, referring to the People’s Republic of China. “We believe our relationship can tolerate that nuance.”
The Chinese foreign ministry’s volley of combative comments, issued before and during Ms. Sherman’s talks in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, suggested that her visit was unlikely to ease the disputes that have festered between Beijing and Washington. The State Department said last week that she would discuss Washington’s “serious concerns” about Chinese actions, as well as “areas where our interests align.” The meetings, held in the northeastern Chinese city of Tianjin, covered the range of disputes between the two countries, she said. Many of them are acrimonious, defying easy resolution.
But Chinese people “feel that the real emphasis is on the adversarial aspect; the collaborative aspect is just an expediency,” Mr. Xie told Ms. Sherman, according to the summary. They included human rights, quickly narrowing political freedoms in Hong Kong and what Ms. Sherman called “the horrifying actions taking place in Xinjiang,” the largely Muslim region in western China where hundreds of thousands have passed through detention camps and re-education centers.
The acrimony echoed the opening of high-level talks between senior Chinese and Biden administration officials in March, when Beijing’s top foreign policy official, Yang Jiechi, delivered a 16-minute lecture, accusing them of arrogance and hypocrisy. Ms. Sherman also raised China’s demands over Taiwan, its military operations in the South China Sea, and the accusations last week by the United States and other nations that China’s Ministry of State Security was behind the hacking of Microsoft email systems and possibly other cyberattacks.
Ms. Sherman rose to prominence during the Obama administration as a leading negotiator of a nuclear agreement with Iran reached in 2015 after years of contentious talks. Now as the No. 2 in the State Department, she is focused on managing tense relations with China. “This is very serious — that the Ministry of State Security would assist criminals to hack Microsoft and potentially others,” she said, adding that many countries had joined the United States in saying that “such behavior is absolutely irresponsible, reckless and has no place in our world.”
While President Biden has largely avoided the heated ideological sparring with the Chinese Communist Party that the Trump administration pursued in its final year, relations remain strained. China, at least publicly, gave no ground, saying that the United States had no right to lecture the Chinese government or anyone else. Even before Ms. Sherman had finished her meetings, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a series of six acrid statements from the first official she met, Xie Feng, the vice foreign minister who oversees relations with the United States.
Washington has drawn in allies to press Beijing over mass detentions and forced labor in Xinjiang and the rollback of freedom in Hong Kong. Mr. Xie accused the United States of committing genocide against Native Americans and botching the response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has left 620,000 Americans dead.
The Chinese government has also bristled at calls from the United States, the World Health Organization and others for a fresh examination of whether the coronavirus may have slipped out of a lab in China, igniting the pandemic. The Biden administration’s policies are nothing but a “thinly veiled attempt to contain and suppress China,” Mr. Xie told Ms. Sherman, according to a summary of his comments that the Chinese foreign ministry sent to reporters on Monday before the Americans could emerge to provide their own account.
Last week, Chinese officials said they were “extremely shocked” by a W.H.O. proposal to take a fresh look at the lab leak theory. A report in March from an initial W.H.O. inquiry stated that it was “extremely unlikely” that the coronavirus had jumped into the wider population through a lab leak. “It seems that a whole-of-government and whole-of-society campaign is being waged to bring China down,” Mr. Xie told Ms. Sherman, according to the summaries of his comments, which were also issued on the Chinese foreign ministry website.
The Biden administration and a coalition of other governments, including the member states of NATO, last week also asserted that Chinese security services and their contract hackers were behind widespread breaches of Microsoft email systems. Ms. Sherman’s meetings offered the latest gauge of how the Biden administration’s strategy is working. So far, at least, it has done little to temper China’s behavior. Mr. Xie’s remarks underscored the anger that has been building in China toward the United States, undermining the chances that the approach will gain ground.
Under Xi Jinping, the Chinese government has expressed impatience with criticism and demands from Washington, especially over what Beijing deems internal issues like Hong Kong, Xinjiang and human rights. After a second meeting — with China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi — Ms. Sherman indicated that the two sides had discussed global and regional problems where the two governments might be able work in concert, including North Korea and nuclear proliferation. She sounded a note of caution about any concrete progress, though, adding that she had not come to the talks expecting instant results.
“We’ll never accept insufferably arrogant lecturing from those ‘master teachers!’” Mr. Xi said in a speech on July 1 marking 100 years since the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. He also warned that foes would “crack their heads and spill blood” against a wall of Chinese resolve. “We were quite direct with each other on the areas of great difference,” she said.
Beijing has repeatedly retaliated against sanctions over Hong Kong and Xinjiang with its own bans on Western politicians, human rights groups and academics. “On areas where we have common interests and there are great global interests, we had very substantive discussions, shared some ideas,” Ms. Sherman said. “We will have to see where that goes.”
China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, who was also scheduled to meet Ms. Sherman in Tianjin, said over the weekend that the United States needed to be taught some humility. Drew Thompson, a former director for China in the U.S. Defense Department, said that the underlying intent behind Ms. Sherman’s visit appeared to be ensuring that sharpening differences did not spiral into dangerous standoffs.
“If the United States still hasn’t learned how to get along with other countries in an equal manner, then we have a responsibility to work with the international community to give it a good catch-up lesson,” Mr. Wang said in talks on Saturday with his Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, according to the Chinese foreign ministry. “Beijing is taking a maximalist approach to the U.S.-China relationship, issuing lists of demands, insisting Washington reverse policies and actions,” said Mr. Thompson, who is now a researcher at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.
“The primary objective for Washington has turned to deepening understanding of China’s positions, reducing the potential for misperception, and avoiding miscalculation that could lead to outright conflict,” he said.
The tone on Monday echoed the opening of high-level talks between senior Chinese and Biden administration officials in March, when Beijing’s top foreign policy official, Yang Jiechi, delivered a 16-minute lecture, accusing the Americans of arrogance and hypocrisy. The contentious start with the Biden administration has surprised officials in China, who thought that relations had hit bottom during the last year of the Trump presidency and thus could only improve with the new president.
Mr. Xie told the Chinese news media after his meeting that he had passed along to Ms. Sherman two sets of demands, including lifting visa restrictions on Communist Party members, rescinding sanctions on Chinese officials and no longer designating major Chinese news outlets in the United States as foreign agents. All of those were put in place during Donald J. Trump’s presidency, but President Biden has not moved to repeal any of them.
While Mr. Biden has largely avoided the heated ideological sparring with the Chinese Communist Party that the Trump administration pursued in its final year, relations remain strained.
Washington has tried to draw in allies to press Beijing on many of these issues. Ms. Sherman’s travel also took her to Japan, South Korea and Mongolia as part of efforts to rebuild regional ties that were strained under Mr. Trump.
And the Chinese government has bristled at calls from the United States, the World Health Organization and others for a new examination of whether the coronavirus may have slipped out of a lab in China, igniting the pandemic.
Last week, Chinese officials said they were “extremely shocked” by a W.H.O. proposal to take a fresh look at the lab leak theory. A report in March from an initial W.H.O. inquiry said that it was “extremely unlikely” that the coronavirus had jumped into the wider population after escaping from a laboratory.
Ms. Sherman said she had pressed China to cooperate with the international investigation into the spread of Covid. “I’ll let them speak for themselves,” she said, “but from my perspective, I certainly didn’t get the answer I wanted or hoped for.”
China’s more combative tone appears to flow from the top. The country’s leader, Xi Jinping, has signaled growing impatience with criticism and demands from Washington, especially over what Beijing deems internal issues like Hong Kong and Xinjiang.
Beijing has retaliated against sanctions over Hong Kong and Xinjiang with its own against Western politicians, rights groups and academics.
“We’ll never accept insufferably arrogant lecturing from those ‘master teachers!’” Mr. Xi said in a speech on July 1 commemorating 100 years since the founding of the Chinese Communist Party.
Keith Bradsher contributed reporting.Keith Bradsher contributed reporting.