China stresses positives after latest US talks

The meeting between foreign policy chief Yang Jiechi and National Security Adviser Jack Sullivan struck a different tone to March’s testy encounter in Alaska

Chinese media coverage preferred to focus on mutual gains after the talks in Switzerland rather than nationalist rhetoric

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The two sides met in the Swiss city of Zurich. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 8:00pm, 7 Oct 2021Updated: 8:21pm, 7 Oct 2021

Chinese media coverage of this week’s high-level meeting with US officials struck a much more positive note, highlighting the possibility of “mutual gains”, than it did after the previous meeting in March.

The talks in Zurich between US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi included discussions of long-standing grievances, as well as potential areas of cooperation, just as they did in the first meeting in Alaska in March.

But the mood music was very different this time and, according to US media reports, plans are being made for a virtual meeting between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden at the end of the year.

In March, Yang’s return home was marked by a flurry of nationalistic rhetoric after he clashed with Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the start of the meeting, warning the US not to adopt a “condescending manner” towards China because “the Chinese people are not buying it”.

At the time US officials accused the Chinese side of violating diplomatic protocols with overtime speeches, although they said there had been substantive and serious discussions.

While Yang also asked the US not to interfere in its domestic affairs this time, the official Chinese readout of the latest talks described them as “timely” and “beneficial”.

Yang also dismissed the idea that the two sides were in “competition” and said Beijing valued recent “positive declarations” from Biden, including his comments that the US does not want to limit China’s development or begin a new cold war.