Focus on Arts and Ecology

October 8, 2021 

China and the U.S. agreed to take action and work together to bring bilateral relations back to the right track of sound and steady development during their latest round of key talks in Zurich, Switzerland on Wednesday.

The consensus was reached during talks between Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and the U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

The two sides, in a candid manner, had a comprehensive and in-depth exchange of views on China-U.S. relations as well as international and regional issues of common concern.

The meeting was described as constructive, and conducive to enhancing mutual understanding.

The lead up... 

The meeting followed a week of additional developments in the relationship between the two countries.:

• The Chinese envoy to the UN on Monday urged the United States to discard "pride and prejudice" on human rights and not to go further down the wrong path. Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations (UN), made the remarks during the general debate of the Third Committee of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly.
• On Monday, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said China will take all necessary measures to crush any "Taiwan independence" attempts. Hua made the remarks in response to the statement made by U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price, who called China's military activities near the Taiwan island "provocative" and "destabilizing."
• During a speech at CSIS. the Washington-based think tank, U.S. trade representative Katherine Tai said that the point of the negotiations is "not to inflame trade tensions with China." Katherine Tai said the U.S. would begin excluding some tariffs on China but was light on details.
• Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang in a keynote speech during a forum organized by the U.S.-Asia Institute on Wednesday said China practices not only the rule of law but also the rule of virtue.  He made the remarks after sharing several buzzwords in China to tell the story of what is going on in China, what the Chinese people are thinking about and what they are doing. 

What's next?

The last time China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi sat down with U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was in Anchorage, Alaska. That meeting began with a fiery exchange in which Yang told the U.S. officials that the United States doesn't have the qualification to speak to China from a position of strength and ended with the meeting been described as "timely, useful and deepened the mutual understanding."

In some ways, the Anchorage meeting defined the style of exchanges between China and U.S. officials that followed: Grievances and differences are vented, real issues are discussed and then the world's most important bilateral relationship is moved forward one step.

The Yang-Sullivan meeting on October 6 was possible and yielded constructive results because of the series of previous high-level exchanges that have cleared out some of the vitriol that poisoned the bilateral relationship for the past several years.

Check out the rest of Huang Jiyuan's commentary here on the future of China-US relations.

(Sources: China Report)