Beijing urges US to stop 'demonizing' China
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister on February 7, 2020 (illustrative image).
AFP - PHILIP FONG
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Wendy Sherman, number two of the US State Department, arrived Sunday in the city of Tianjin, in the north of the country where she was to meet her Chinese counterpart Xie Feng on Monday.
Chinese and US officials had not seen each other since John Kerry's visit to Shanghai in April.
As a preamble, Beijing called on the United States to stop demonizing China.
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With our correspondent in Beijing,
Stéphane Lagarde
It is again the argument of the "
imaginary enemy
" that emerged this Monday morning the Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs.
An argument that is not new.
A few days ago when the United States and Europe denounced attacks attributed to Chinese hackers, Beijing was already asserting that the White House must stop accusing China of being "
the empire of hackers
", under- heard "the evil empire".
According to the report of the preamble of the meeting sent by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday, July 26 on WeChat messaging, Xie Feng would have asked his American counterpart to change his "
erroneous state of mind
" and the policy described as "
dangerous
”conducted by the White House.
Deadlocked relations
"
Basically, it's because the Americans see China as an imaginary enemy
" that we are at an impasse, the Chinese vice-foreign minister said.
It is true that things have not progressed much since the
icy meeting in Anchorage
last March.
China must be treated on an equal footing, State Councilor Wang Yi said at the weekend.
What Beijing does not want are in particular lessons on what the communist regime considers to be internal affairs, and in particular human rights in Hong Kong or Xinjiang, respect for the law of the sea in the seas of China or the Taiwan question.
This new summit, just over an hour by TGV from Beijing, should nevertheless be an opportunity, according to Washington, to clearly recall its positions and what everyone expects from the Sino-American relationship.
The objective is also to prepare a future summit between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden.
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