Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, in Hawaii on Wednesday, in high-level face-to-face talks that have become rare amid tensions between the two strategic rivals, Reuters reports.
The world’s two largest economies have been at loggerheads over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic and China’s move to impose security legislation on Hong Kong, among multiple points of friction that have worsened this year.
Yang told Pompeo that Washington needs to respect Beijing’s positions on key issues, halt its interference on matters such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Xinjiang, and work to repair relations, China’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
Pompeo, who has been singled out for scathing criticism by Chinese diplomats and state media, stressed “the need for fully-reciprocal dealings between the two nations,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement. “He also stressed the need for full transparency and information sharing to combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and prevent future outbreaks.”
Hours after the meeting ended, China announced that its top parliamentary body will review draft Hong Kong national security legislation during a session that began on Thursday.
Earlier, foreign ministers of the G7 countries, including Pompeo, issued a statement calling on China not to follow through with the Hong Kong legislation, which critics call an assault on the territory’s democratic freedoms.
As the meeting got under way, U.S. President Donald Trump signed legislation calling for sanctions against those responsible for repression of Uighur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region, prompting a threat of retaliation from Beijing.
Wu Xinbo, dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, said that meeting could reduce “microphone diplomacy” between the two bickering sides, but said he was doubtful that it would stabilize relations. “Trump will continue to criticize China in the lead-up to the U.S. elections,” he said.
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