US-China relations: high-level diplomatic talks are unheard-of in Alaska, but locals are unfazed
- The state enjoys robust trade ties with China, and hasn’t been terribly hurt by the trade war, but residents don’t seem impressed by the geopolitical gathering
- Strong concerns about Beijing’s human rights record are expressed – concerns members of the US delegation have also voiced
“There’s a meeting? How curious. Why it would be in Anchorage?” Jim Moore, a retired motorcycle racer and Alaska native, asked about talks between US and Chinese officials this week. “We’re just a speck on the map. We’re about as far away as you can get from things. That’s why most of us live here.”
The two-day gathering – involving US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi – started on Thursday with a light snow falling, and it is the biggest geopolitical event for Alaska in years.
But you wouldn’t know it here on the ground in this famously self-reliant state far from the federal halls of power. There are no welcoming banners and near-empty streets around the delegation’s respective hotels – located near the Once in a Blue Moose gift shop and “No 1 Haunted House in America” – other than an occasional Chinese TV crew doing a live stand-up in the snow.
Nor was there much mention in the local papers. Among the main stories in Wednesday’s Anchorage Daily News were a projection on the 2021 salmon harvest (things look good) and a front-page story on a dogsled musher recovering from a head injury and dislocated arm.
“I hadn’t heard,” said medical worker Sarah Sweeney, dressed in mud-caked brown boots and a green jacket for a trip to the grocery store. “In Anchorage? Cool.”
Several locals were quick to provide an earful on Washington, however, how near useless and corrupt the national government is, even though by some measures Alaska has the second-highest “federal dependency ranking” after New Mexico, receiving US$2.88 in federal spending for every tax dollar paid.