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US-China relations
ChinaDiplomacy

US hasn’t changed course since Xi-Biden summit, Chinese foreign minister tells Antony Blinken

  • Wang Yi tells Blinken to stop ‘interfering with the Beijing Winter Olympics’ and ‘playing with fire’ on Taiwan
  • Direction discussed by Xi Jinping and Joe Biden at virtual summit has not been followed, Wang says

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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said US policy had not matched what was said during the virtual summit in November. Photo: Xinhua
Teddy NgandKinling Lo
Washington has not fundamentally changed its China policies and US-China relations face “new shocks” two months after the virtual summit between the two countries’ presidents, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Thursday.
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In a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Wang said November’s virtual meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US counterpart Joe Biden had laid out a direction for relations and it was important to implement it.
The conversation took place with tensions around almost every aspect of their bilateral ties, and with Beijing and Moscow moving closer. For the first time, Wang told Blinken that Russia’s “reasonable security concerns” over Ukraine should be taken seriously.

“What the world sees is that the tone of US policy towards China has not changed substantially, and President Biden’s remarks have not been put into practice,” Wang told Blinken, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.

“The US continues to make wrong words and deeds about China, causing new shocks to the relationship between the two countries.”

According to Beijing, Biden said in that meeting that the US did not seek a new cold war with China, was not seeking to strengthen its alliances to counter China, and would not support Taiwanese independence. A US statement after the meeting said that Biden underscored the importance of ensuring competition between the nations did not veer into conflict, but did not mention a cold war or US alliances.

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