U.S. LECTURES CHINA: ALASKA MEETING ISN’T A ‘STRATEGIC DIALOGUE’

The US and China laid out differing expectations for a key first meeting of their top diplomats in Alaska next week, showing the domestic pressure on both sides to avoid looking weak while reopening relations, Philip Glamann and Jing Li reported for Bloomberg News.

The encounter between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and their Chinese counterparts in Alaska would represent the highest-level meeting between the two sides since President Joe Biden took office.

But the two sides quickly disagreed over whether the exchange was a “strategic dialogue,” a reference to regular talks that fell apart under former President Donald Trump.

“This is not a strategic dialogue -- there’s no intent at this point for a series of follow-on engagements,” Blinken told members of Congress on Wednesday.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian later released a response to Blinken’s remarks, describing the meetings on March 18-19 as a “high-level strategic dialogue” being held “at the invitation of the US.”

The face-to-face meeting will come on the heels of days of high-profile meetings between US officials and key Asia-Pacific partners, including the first-ever state leaders meeting from the Quad grouping of democracies.

The schedule -- as well as the venue on American soil -- allows the US side to project strength and possibly maintain regular patrols in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait with the navies of the Quad countries in tow.

Blinken told the US House Foreign Affairs Committee that future engagements with China would happen only if the administration saw tangible progress on the issues of concern. “But this is an opportunity for us to put it on the table,” he said.

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