China, US continue to wrangle over protocol after Sherman talks

Beijing and Washington have continued to wrangle over protocol following a visit to China by America’s No 2 diplomat, with the two sides presenting different versions of the high-level talks.

The US statement on deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman’s trip to the northern city of Tianjin focused on Monday’s meeting with Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

But China’s line, delivered via state media, was that Sherman had been hosted by an official at a lower ranking – foreign vice-minister Xie Feng.

Tuesday’s analysis on Yuyuan Tantian, a social media account affiliated with state broadcaster CCTV, said the US had proposed Sherman’s trip in May, and that the talks with Wang – which took place after her meeting with Xie – were arranged out of courtesy. It pointed to Xie briefing the media after the pair met, saying he had handed Sherman Beijing’s list of grievances and red line issues in their formal talks.

The US State Department named only Foreign Minister Wang in its readout, with no mention of any other Chinese officials involved in the talks – in line with a statement last week on Sherman’s itinerary.

It is a continuation of the haggling over protocol that went into planning the meeting – the first face-to-face talks between senior Chinese and US officials since March. Beijing wanted Sherman to meet Xie, who handles US policy at the foreign ministry and has been its commissioner in Hong Kong and a “point man” on Xinjiang – two issues inflaming tensions between the powers. Washington wanted Sherman – the highest-ranking US official to visit China since Joe Biden took office – to meet a higher level official. Neither side wanted to appear to be at a disadvantage.

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Pang Zhongying, an international relations expert at the Ocean University of China in Qingdao, said that protocol aside, China and the US had both gone into the talks wanting to show they would not budge.

“Both sides laid out their demands for each other, and both were basically telling their domestic audiences that they would not bow down to the other side,” he said.

His view was echoed by Zhu Feng, an international relations professor at Nanjing University, who said domestic sentiment meant “they both wanted to be seen as standing firm”.

“China-US relations have undergone a lot of change,” Zhu said. “The Biden administration has stepped up its strategic competition with China, and China doesn’t accept that and it will continue to fight back in a high-profile way.”

In the talks, Sherman raised human rights in Xinjiang and the political crackdown in Hong Kong, cybersecurity, the situation in the Taiwan Strait as well as the East and South China seas, the detention of American and Canadian citizens in China, and Beijing’s refusal to cooperate with the World Health Organization’s second inquiry into the origins of Covid-19, according to the US State Department.

But she also reaffirmed cooperation in areas like nuclear proliferation and climate change.

“The deputy secretary raised concerns in private – as we have in public – about a range of PRC actions that run counter to our values and interests and those of our allies and partners, and that undermine the international rules-based order,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

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According to Beijing, Xie handed over two lists: the issues it wants the US to take action on – including lifting visa restrictions on Communist Party members, their families and Chinese students – and a list of key concerns. Wang called for the US not to challenge or seek to subvert China’s model of governance, not to interfere in its development, violate its sovereignty or harm its territorial integrity.

Yogesh Gupta, a former Indian ambassador to Denmark and a specialist in China-India relations, said Beijing was sending a message that Washington must respect its sensitivities if it wants China’s support on other issues.

“Chinese leaders give the impression that the USA has much more to seek from them than they from Washington,” he said. “This time, the Americans were on the defensive as they sought Beijing’s cooperation on a range of issues – climate change, North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan and others – ensuring that the USA did not seek conflict.”