World

US and China trade angry barbs at high-level Alaska talks

March 19, 2021 5:17 pm

It was the first high-level direct meeting between the new US administration and China. [Source: BBC]

US and Chinese officials have exchanged sharp rebukes in the first high-level talks between the Biden administration and China, taking place in Alaska.

Chinese officials accused the US of inciting countries “to attack China”, while the US said China had “arrived intent on grandstanding”.

Relations between the two superpowers are at their most strained for years.

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The US has pledged to raise contentious issues such as Beijing’s treatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.

The ill-tempered talks in Anchorage involved Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan on the US side, facing off with China’s most senior foreign policy official, Yang Jiechi, and foreign minister Wang Yi.