Alaska talks can help thaw relations
- Reports that top diplomats from China and the United States may meet soon offer hope of an easing of tensions and a better understanding between the two nations
A relationship as caustic as that of China and the United States requires deft handling. But no matter how acrid ties have become, the world’s two most powerful economies need a mechanism through which senior officials can discuss concerns and issues of shared interest.
Reports that the nations’ top diplomats could meet soon in Alaska offer hope. Should such an encounter take place, it would be an important icebreaker that could ease tensions, foster understanding and pave the way for a much-needed summit between presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden.
The geopolitical rivalry between the nations is so intense that diplomacy at any level has for now to be low key. Sentiment is such that neither can be publicly seen to be reaching out and making concessions to the other.
But dialogue has not completely broken down and efforts to bring together leading Chinese diplomats, Politburo member Yang Jiechi, Xi’s top foreign affairs adviser, and State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and American Secretary of State Antony Blinken, would be a sensible step. Biden’s administration is not likely to dramatically alter the course it inherited from former president Donald Trump, but there is at least a chance to restore high-level channels of communication.
There is a willingness, as proved when Biden phoned Xi on the eve of Lunar New Year. Their two-hour conversation broached a range of issues at the heart of their nations’ dispute, among them Hong Kong, Taiwan, Xinjiang and Tibet.
These are also bound to be on the table at talks, but the US has to understand Beijing’s position that red lines cannot be crossed and pressure tactics will not work. Unwinding US measures against Chinese trade and technology is a complex matter and cannot be achieved without tough negotiations.
Washington confirms direct engagement between US and Chinese diplomats
The best means to restore discourse lies in the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, abandoned by Trump, but which had successfully helped steer relations under previous American administrations. Ties are so fraught, though, that such a high-level mechanism cannot be a mere talking shop; it has to have well-defined aims and goals, based on common ground.
A meeting between Xi and Biden, perhaps on the sidelines of an upcoming multilateral gathering, would also set a positive course.
