China goes to Alaska to dictate terms and interests to America
By Gordon Chang, opinion contributor — 03/16/21 06:00 PM EDT
https://thehill.com/opinion/internationa...ests-to-america

American officials are ready to participate in the first high level meeting of the administration with their Chinese counterparts this week in Alaska. But those representatives from Beijing are not coming to conduct meaningful discussions. They are coming instead to lecture Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

“The Chinese are offering zero accommodations to the United States,” a former defense official said in an interview with Foreign Policy. “They are offering only expectations of the United States to change and no change on their part.” The assessment is consistent with the hardline tone which top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi took in his call with Blinken last month. In the past, Chinese officials at a meeting like this one would make some concessions for the American side, or at least note they would, because they had believed the United States to be strong.

Those days are gone. Chinese ruler Xi Jinping now believes the balance of power will soon tip in his favor if it has not already. His propaganda line is now “the East is rising and the West is declining.” This narrative serves his political interest since it bolsters the claims that he is leading the country to historic success. Communist Party foreign policy has always been tied to domestic affairs, but now with the willful Chinese authority. Significant concessions to the United States would undermine a clear semblance of national strength and threaten his hold on power.

American officials do not understand the hostility of the Communist Party. How can Chinese officials concede to a power declared to be the enemy? The regime does not respect or fear the United States. But why should it? President Biden made unilateral concessions to China in executive orders and actions, like postponing rules against investments in firms tied to the Chinese military, delaying prohibitions on Chinese apps, and rejoining the World Health Organization. No surprise the Chinese elite think they do not have to make concessions to get what they want.

American officials are boxed in. Washington cannot make concessions to a regime that is committing genocide-- excerpt, rest at link above --

Watch Out: China Cannot Feed Itself | Opinion
https://www.newsweek.com/watch-out-china...opinion-1575948
Gordon G. Chang , Author, commentator
On 3/15/21 at 7:30 AM EDT


Consider U.S. farmers happy. They are exporting record volumes of products to China. Shipments of soybeans, corn and pork are bringing smiles back to the American heartland.

Or, to put this another way, Beijing is effectively acknowledging it cannot feed the Chinese people.

China's leader, Xi Jinping, recently made such an admission. Last August, he announced what became known as the "clean your plate" campaign to end what he called a "shocking and distressing" waste of food. Just about everyone saw this effort, to get the Chinese people to eat less, as a warning of food shortages to come.

Chinese officials will not formally admit China is becoming increasingly dependent on foreign food—that would be political dynamite—but it is now apparent that the country needs to buy foodstuffs from abroad.

We start in 2019, which according to Beijing was a very good year on the food front. The official Xinhua News Agency, in a piece titled "China's Food Self-Sufficiency a Blessing To World," claimed in October that China was producing far more food than it needed. The country, Xinhua reported, contained 20 percent of the global population and produced a quarter of its food. Moreover, Beijing felt it was time to brag, noting China had been able to accomplish this feat with only 9 percent of the world's farmland and 6 percent of its freshwater.

Xinhua in 2019 was exaggerating, and that became clear in 2020, an especially difficult year for Chinese agriculture. -- excerpt, rest at link above --

‘Off-The-Charts Arrogant’: Lawmakers, Analysts Slam Chinese Diplomats’ Fiery Display at US-China Talks
https://www.theepochtimes.com/off-the-ch...ks_3741316.html
By Cathy He
March 19, 2021 Updated: March 19, 2021


The first face-to-face talks between the Biden administration and Beijing on March 18 got off to a testy start after Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials lashed out at the United States over a range of alleged infractions.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan met Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and a senior foreign policy official Yang Jiechi in Anchorage, Alaska, on Thursday for two days of talks between the two sides.

Blinken in his opening remarks said the Biden administration is united with its allies in pushing back against China’s increasing authoritarianism and assertiveness at home and abroad.

“Each of these actions threaten the rules-based order that maintains global stability,” Blinken said of China’s actions in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, and of cyberattacks on the United States and economic coercion against U.S. allies. “That’s why they’re not merely internal matters, and why we feel an obligation to raise these issues here today.”

Sullivan amplified the criticism, saying China has undertaken an “assault on basic values.”-- excerpt, rest at link above --

China uses Black Lives Matter to embarrass Biden Administration
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/202...ass-biden-admi/
By Kelly Sadler - The Washington Times - Friday, March 19, 2021


The Biden administration was thoroughly embarrassed and unprepared in their first diplomatic meeting with the Chinese delegation yesterday.

On U.S. soil, the Chinese mocked U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

“Many people within the United States actually have little confidence in the democracy of the United States,” top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi told the Biden administration, citing the Black Lives Matter movement. The Chinese brazenly violated protocol for their 2-minute openings, each extending their comments beyond the given time. Mr. Yang spoke for 16 minutes.

Instead of refuting the comments outright – and turning the tables on China, condemning them for the mass surveillance, internment, killing of Uyghurs – Mr. Sullivan seemed to dignify the Chinese criticisms.

“What we’ve done throughout our history is to confront,” race issues transparently, “not trying to pretend they don’t exist,” Mr. Sullivan retorted. “The secret sauce of America,” is its ability to look hard at its own shortcomings and seek to improve, he added.-- excerpt, rest at link above --