US, China look to shore up ties with allies after Alaska clash

The United States and China are moving to bolster relations with their respective allies and partners, on the heels of talks in Alaska that laid bare the deep rift between the two powers.

After last week’s fiery exchange between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi in Anchorage, Blinken met his Nato counterparts in Brussels on Tuesday, telling them the transatlantic security alliance should be “focused on some of the challenges that China poses to the rules-based international order”.

The talks follow the Alaska confrontation, where Blinken stressed “deep concerns” over Beijing’s repression in Xinjiang and Hong Kong as well as economic coercion of US allies, and Yang slammed Washington for exercising “long-arm jurisdiction and suppression” and over human rights. While the two sides agreed to set up a working group on climate change, the fireworks showed they remain far apart on issues such as human rights and China’s actions in cyberspace.

Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi returned home from the Alaska meeting to host his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in the southern city of Guilin on Monday and Tuesday, with the two sides agreeing to “work together against sanctions” from the US and its allies.