BEIJING. “If relations between the United States and China are stalled, it is because America sees us as an imaginary enemy. By demonizing China, they hope to somehow shift the focus from their internal problems to political, economic and social issues by blaming Beijing for its structural problems. We urge the United States to change its highly misleading mentality and its dangerous policy ”. So Xie Feng, Deputy Foreign Minister, welcomed US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman today in Tianjin, about a hundred kilometers from the Chinese capital. A long negotiated journey between the parties and which, not after a few difficulties, was finally completed. This morning, however, was only the appetizer: the main course will be the meeting this afternoon between Antony Blinken’s deputy and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. “The United States is the inventor and owner of the patent and intellectual property of coercive diplomacy. We want to work with the US – the deputy minister reiterated after the initial thrust – but on the basis of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence ”.
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According to what leaked from Chinese diplomacy – the media were not allowed to the meeting in the hotel where the meeting took place – Xie would even have provided two lists of requests to the American counterpart: one on the “misdeeds” of the Trump era, which Beijing wants are corrected. And the other on some individual cases. Among the Dragon’s demands in Washington are the lifting of visa restrictions for Communist Party members and their families as well as those relating to overseas Chinese students. The end of the “crackdown” against their companies and the revocation of the extradition request of Meng Wanzhou, director of the telecommunications giant Huawei arrested in Canada at the end of 2018.
“Strong dissatisfaction”, finally, for the “observations and wrong actions of the United States in relation to the investigation into Covid, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and the South China Sea”.
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The visit comes at the umpteenth moment of high tension between Washington and Beijing. Last week, the Biden administration accused the People’s Republic of being responsible for the hacker attacks that hit Microsoft’s email servers. And on Friday, Beijing imposed sanctions on seven individuals and entities in response to US sanctions against as many Chinese officials in Hong Kong. Sherman arrived in China after a visit to Japan and South Korea – historic US allies in the region – and to Mongolia, where relations between Ulan Bator and Washington have recently improved. Today is the first high-level meeting since the turbulent meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, last March. And the first of a senior US diplomacy official on Chinese soil since Joe Biden took office in the White House.
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