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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has warned US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that “negative factors” are increasing in bilateral relations, signaling Beijing’s growing impatience with Washington’s policies.
Speaking ahead of closed-door talks with Blinken in Beijing on Friday, Wang said that while dialogue and cooperation between the United States and China had intensified in “various areas,” “on the other hand, “negative factors in Sino-US relations remain.” which rises and accumulates.
“China’s legitimate right to development is unreasonably suppressed and China’s core interests are constantly challenged,” Wang said, reflecting concerns about U.S. controls on advanced technology exports and military support for Taiwan. .
Blinken, who is expected to deliver a tough message on the war in Ukraine during his three-day trip to China, said he would be “very clear, very direct on the areas where we have differences”, but added that “it was important to demonstrate that we are managing the most important relationship responsibly.”
Although Chinese rhetoric has been less harsh than early last year, when bilateral relations were at their lowest in a decade, Beijing has taken a tougher approach in recent weeks as tensions have risen over issues such as Ukraine, trade policy and the South China Sea.
“The international community is waiting to see whether the two sides will carry out international cooperation to resolve global problems and achieve mutual and multiple victories, or whether they will clash or even erupt into conflict, resulting in losses for both sides. them and many others,” Wang said before the talks.
Blinken was expected to tell Wang that the United States would take action against Chinese companies that export technology to Russia that could be used to make weapons during Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Cooperation between the superpowers has advanced, including on restrictions on the sale of fentanyl precursors by Chinese companies, since a rapprochement in November, when US President Joe Biden met Xi Jinping in San Francisco, officials say Chinese.
But friction has also intensified in the South China Sea, which China claims almost in its entirety. Chinese ships are trying to prevent the Philippines from resupplying Marines aboard the Sierra Madre, a rusting ship stranded on the Second Thomas Shoal, a submerged reef inside the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
The United States has warned that its mutual defense treaty with the Philippines applies to the Sierra Madre, with Biden expressing “deep concern” over the issue in a phone call with Xi this month.
An addingI report by Wenjie Ding in Beijing
