Genocidal Chinese dictator Xi Jinping held an extended meeting with American Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday in which, according to the Chinese government, Xi claimed the Communist Party “does not seek to challenge or displace” America, but demands Washington “respect China” and “not hurt China’s legitimate rights and interests.”
China’s state-run CCTV broadcaster published a short video of the meeting, taking place around an oversized conference table in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, where the Communist Party typically attends guests.
Every person around the table except for Xi, who sat at the head, and Blinken wore a sanitary mask.
Footage and photos of the encounter, shared by Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Hua Chunying, indicate the encounter, in which the dictator and America’s top diplomat were flanked by multiple aides, was dispassioned and cold.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s extensive readout of their conversation focused largely on Xi’s statements, leaving one paragraph dedicated to Blinken’s response.
President Xi pointed out that the world needs a generally stable China-U.S. relationship. Whether the two countries can find the right way to get along bears on the future of humanity. pic.twitter.com/gHV1QjizTD
— Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) June 19, 2023
The two countries should act with a sense of responsibility for history, for the people and for the world, and handle China-U.S. relations properly. pic.twitter.com/kD5njxw0Mj
— Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) June 19, 2023
“President Xi pointed out that the world is developing and the times are changing. The world needs a generally stable China-U.S. relationship,” the Foreign Ministry narrated. “Planet Earth is big enough to accommodate the respective development and common prosperity of China and the United States. The Chinese, like the Americans, are dignified, confident and self-reliant people. They both have the right to pursue a better life.”
Xi reportedly told Blinken that the success of China should be “an opportunity instead of a threat’ to America and both should “should act with a sense of responsibility for history, for the people and for the world, and handle China-U.S. relations properly.”
“China respects U.S. interests and does not seek to challenge or displace the United States. In the same vein, the United States needs to respect China and must not hurt China’s legitimate rights and interests,” the Foreign Ministry continued, paraphrasing Xi. “He called on the U.S. side to adopt a rational and pragmatic attitude, and work with China in the same direction.”
According to the Chinese government, Blinken committed the United States to “returning to the agenda set by the two presidents in Bali” – a reference to a meeting between Xi and leftist American President Joe Biden on the Indonesian island in November, where Xi blamed all tensions between Beijing and Washington squarely on America and Biden reportedly vowed not seek to make America independent economically on the Chinese communist slave economy or support the free state of Taiwan against China’s false claims of sovereignty over it.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Monday, June 19, 2023. (Leah Millis/Pool Photo via AP)
“The United States stands by the commitments made by President Biden,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry described Blinken as saying on Monday, “namely the United States does not seek a new Cold War, it does not seek to change China’s system, its alliances are not directed at China, it does not support ‘Taiwan independence,’ and it does not seek conflict with China.”
The State Department has not, at press time, published a readout of the meeting, but it did provide a transcript of remarks by both Blinken and Xi prior to their exchange. Blinken described ongoing attempts to lower the temperature in China-America ties as “an obligation and responsibility” to the world, not just to their respective populations, and thanked other Chinese officials for “candid and constructive conversations” prior to his encounter with Xi.
Xi, in turn, welcomed Blinken to China and said publicly that the countries had “made progress and reached agreement on some specific issues. This is very good.”
None of the information publicly available on the meeting at press time indicates that Blinken raised the issue of China’s extensive human rights atrocities against its own people, the most egregious of which known publicly is the ongoing genocide of the Turkic peoples of occupied East Turkistan. Under Xi, who has run the country for a decade as chairman of the Communist Party, China has built over 1,000 concentration camps in East Turkistan to imprison as many as 3 million people, forcing them to abandon their culture, religion, and identity. Survivors of the camps have reported experiencing forced sterilizations and abortions, extensive torture, gang rape, and slavery, among other crimes.
The information also does not identify any specific issues that the two sides may have discussed – for example, China’s role in the growing fentanyl crisis in America, China’s dangerous military maneuvers in the South China Sea against the U.S. Navy and its allies, or the rampant theft of intellectual property by China from American companies.
Leaked documents from Chinese law enforcement and high levels of the Party have revealed that Xi personally ordered his underlings to engage in a campaign of genocide, to “break the lineages” of non-Han people in East Turkistan.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken holds a news conference in the Beijing American Center at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, Monday, June 19, 2023. The United States and China have pledged to stabilize their badly deteriorated ties during a critical visit to Beijing by Blinken, who met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Blinken’s highly anticipated visit to China began on Sunday and featured extensive conversations with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and top Politburo member Wang Yi, Qin’s predecessor, before his encounter with Xi. Reports indicated, though neither country ever confirmed, that Blinken was scheduled to visit China in February. That visit was reportedly canceled following the discovery of an invasive Chinese aircraft over American skies, which Biden allowed to fly across the continental United States before shooting it down. Reports indicated later that the aircraft, a balloon, was a surveillance vessel and gathered intelligence from sensitive American military sites.
Blinken’s meeting with Wang reportedly lasted three hours on Monday, while his meeting with Qin lasted nearly six, according to the Global Times, a state-run Chinese propaganda outlet.
Qin reportedly used the five-plus hours to lecture Blinken to “uphold an objective and rational understanding of China” and, in particularly, not to support the friendly Taiwanese government, which Beijing incorrectly identifies as a “separatist” rogue entity.
“He [Qin] pointed out that the Taiwan question is the core of China’s core interests, the most important issue and the most prominent risk in China-US relations,” the Global Times relayed. “He urged the US side to abide by the one-China principle and the three Sino-US joint communiqués, and implement its commitment not to support ‘Taiwan independence.’”
Blinken reportedly invited Qin back to the United States, where he previously served as Chinese ambassador, at the end of the meeting.
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.
Comments are closed.