Shine to meet China’s Wang Yi in Jakarta

Jul 12 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi on Thursday as officials gather in Indonesia for ASEAN meetings, the State Department told announce the latest series of interactions between the rival superpowers.

Wang represents China at Jakarta meetings involving the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and partner countries after Beijing said Foreign Minister Qin Gang would not attend. for health reasons.

Blinken met with Qin and Wang in Beijing last month., which marks the first visit to China by a US Secretary of State in five years. His goal was to ease the intense rivalry between the superpowers, which are also the world’s two largest economies.

US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen visited China earlier this month and Climate envoy John Kerry to visit next week.

Wang, who is the Chinese Communist Party’s foreign policy chief, ranks above Qin, who as foreign minister is the government’s foreign policy chief.

Chinese Ambassador to the United States held an unusual meeting at the Pentagon on Wednesday with the top US defense official for Asia, the Pentagon said, in talks that followed US criticism of China’s reluctance to engage in military communications.

Analysts see the meetings as part of efforts to clear the way for a summit between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping later in the yearbut tensions remain high.

Blinken’s last meeting with Wang Yi in Beijing appeared to be the thorniest of his visit, with Wang telling him that the “root cause” of their disagreement was America’s “misperception of China” and its “misguided China policies.” according to a Chinese reading.

As Washington seeks to put a floor to relations, which Beijing has described as at their lowest point since the establishment of diplomatic ties, the two sides remain at loggerheads over a range of trade, security and geopolitical issues.

In Taiwan, the democratic island that Beijing claims as its own, Wang’s tone in his last meeting with Blinken was particularly scathing.

“China has no room for compromises or concessions,” Wang said, according to the reading.

The United States is required by law to provide Taiwan with the means to protect itself, but has long adhered to a policy of “strategic ambiguity” about whether it would respond militarily to an attack on Taiwan, which Beijing has refused to rule out.

Last week, senior State Department East Asia official Daniel Kritenbrink said Blinken would work with ASEAN members in Jakarta. in response to “an upward trend of futile, coercive and irresponsible Chinese actions”.

Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Simon Lewis; Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Edited by Michael Perry and Raju Gopalakrishnan

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