Senior Chinese Politburo member Yang Jiechi berated U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to make Washington “correct its strategic perceptions of China” and “make the right choices” in a reportedly four-and-a-half-hour meeting on Monday that the White House and Chinese state media both reported featured little input from Sullivan.
While not formally China’s top diplomat, a title belonging to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Yang has become communist dictator Xi Jinping’s go-to envoy for meeting with Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken after a disastrous encounter in Anchorage, Alaska, in March 2021, the first high-level meeting with Chinese officials after President Joe Biden took office.
At that meeting, Yang grossly violated summit rules by ranting for 16 minutes, complaining about alleged racism and human rights violations in the United States, citing the Marxist “Black Lives Matter” movement. Neither Blinken nor Sullivan significantly pushed back on Yang’s comments, failing to seriously confront China on its ongoing genocide of the Uyghur people of East Turkistan; the extensive evidence of the torture and disappearance of people of faith, human rights lawyers, and other people deemed threats to communism; or the reports of “executions by organ removal” to fund the lucrative black market organ trade.
The Chinese delegation led by Yang Jiechi (C) speak with their US counterparts at the opening session of US-China talks at the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Monday’s meeting in Luxembourg appeared to be more of the same based on the information both sides made publicly available. The White House published little information on the meeting.
“This meeting, which followed their May 18 phone call, included candid, substantive, and productive discussion of a number of regional and global security issues, as well as key issues in U.S.-China relations,” the White House said in its readout. “Mr. Sullivan underscored the importance of maintaining open lines of communication to manage competition between our two countries.”
The White House did not detail any more of Sullivan’s comments to Yang.
In contrast, China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency published an extensive report detailing Yang’s comments. Xinhua also omitted any details regarding Sullivan’s contributions to the meeting. Like the White House, Xinhua reported that the conversation was “candid, in-depth, and constructive.”
“China-U.S. relations are at a critical crossroads, noted Yang, saying that the three principles proposed by President Xi – mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation – are the correct approaches for China and the United States in getting along,” Xinhua relayed. “For some time, however, the U.S. side has been insisting on further containing and suppressing China in an all-round way.”
“Such acts, instead of helping the United States solve its own problems, have plunged China-U.S. relations into a very difficult situation,” the Xinhua report continued, “and severely damaged the exchanges and cooperation in bilateral areas, Yang said, stressing that such a situation conforms neither to the interests of the two sides nor other countries of the world.”
Yang, it concluded, “said the U.S. side should correct its strategic perceptions of China, make the right choices, and translate President Biden’s commitments into concrete actions.”
The Chinese official appeared to spend a significant amount of time berating Sullivan about Taiwan, an island nation off the coast of China that the Communist Party incorrectly insists is a province of China. China’s Defense Minister Wei Fenghe delivered a speech this weekend warning America that the Party “will not hesitate to fight” a war to conquer Taiwan, even if that meant going to war with the United States. Xi personally has warned in the past that anyone who acknowledges the reality of Taiwan’s sovereignty would have their “bones ground to powder.”
A Taiwanese Air Force F-16 in foreground flies on the flank of a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) H-6 bomber as it passes near Taiwan. (Republic of China (ROC) Ministry of National Defense via AP, File)
“The Taiwan question concerns the political foundation of China-U.S. relations which, unless handled properly, will have a subversive impact, said the senior Chinese diplomat,” according to Xinhua. “The risk does not only exist but will escalate as the United States attempts to contain China with the Taiwan question, and as the Taiwan authorities rely on the United States to seek its ‘independence.'”
According to the leftist news outlet CNN, citing anonymous individuals, the meeting between Yang and Sullivan lasted four hours.
Yang and Sullivan have developed a regular schedule of extensive meetings. In March, the two held a seven-hour meeting that appeared to feature similar dynamics – Chinese sources offered detailed accounts of Yang’s complaints while the White House issued little information regarding what, if anything, Sullivan said to Yang.
On that occasion, in Rome, Yang again harangued Sullivan about Taiwan, according to Xinhua.
“The Chinese side expresses grave concern over and firm opposition to the recent wrong words and deeds of the U.S. side on Taiwan-related issues, Yang noted,” the Chinese government agency reported at the time, “adding that any attempts to condone and support ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces, or play the ‘Taiwan card’ and use the Taiwan question to contain China will be futile.”
In contrast, the White House claimed that Sullivan engaged in a “substantial discussion of Russia’s war against Ukraine,” a situation in which China plays no significant role.
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