Hawaii talks a chance for Mike Pompeo and Yang Jiechi to ‘draw red lines in the sand’

Meeting of top diplomats on Wednesday comes as relations between Beijing and Washington are at their lowest point in decades

Observers are not optimistic there will be any real breakthroughs, but say it could help ‘avoid a sharp turn for the worse’

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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is not expected to take a conciliatory approach when he meets China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi. Photo: AFP

Published: 11:00pm, 16 Jun 2020Updated: 4:56am, 17 Jun 2020

With relations between Beijing and Washington at their lowest ebb in decades, all eyes are on a meeting of top diplomats in Hawaii that observers say will be a chance to “draw red lines in the sand”.

There is little doubt that the talks between China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday – their first meeting since August – are aimed at de-escalating tensions ahead of the US presidential election. But few details have been given, including why it was hastily arranged in the middle of a global health crisis.

Neither side has publicly confirmed the face-to-face meeting at Hickam Air Force Base will even take place, while observers and people familiar with the arrangements have given contradictory versions of which side initiated the rare face-to-face talks amid the pandemic.

Under the watch of Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump, relations have taken a precipitous slide – some say towards a new cold war – since the coronavirus was first discovered in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

The talks are expected to take place at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii. Photo: AFP

The two sides have engaged in a blame game over the deadly virus, but they have also sparred over other issues – Beijing’s plan to impose a controversial national security law in Hong Kong, the South China Sea, Taiwan and Xinjiang, the protracted trade war and technology.