The U.S. and China laid out differing expectations for a key first meeting next week, showing the domestic pressure on both sides to avoid looking weak while reopening relations.
The encounter in Alaska between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan and their Chinese counterparts, Foreign Minister Wang Yi and top diplomat Yang Jiechi, 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 and 19 as a "high-level strategic dialogue” being held "at the invitation of the U.S.”