Back from meetings with top Chinese leaders in Beijing and Shanghai over Apr 24-26, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that apart from discussing the numerous weighty matters that continue to bedevil good relations between the two sides, issues relating to human rights and Tibet as well as Xinjiang and other serious concerns such, especially, as Taiwan were also raised. But China has made it clear that it pushed back against the US advocacy on those issues.
At a press availability on Apr 26, Blinken has said: “I raised the cases of American citizens who are wrongfully detained and those who are subject to exit bans. President Biden and I will not rest until they’re back with their families where they belong. I also raised concerns about the erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy and democratic institutions as well as transnational repression, ongoing human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Tibet, and a number of individual human rights cases.”
Blinken has not said what China’s reaction was to his raising of those concerns. However, China’s official Xinhua news agency Apr 27 cited Yang Tao, Director General of the Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs of the Foreign Ministry, as saying at a media briefing on the just-concluded visit: “On issues related to Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Xizang, and human rights, Yang noted that Hong Kong belongs to China, and the United States should respect China’s sovereignty and the rule of law in Hong Kong. Any smearing campaign must be stopped. Issues related to Xinjiang and Xizang are China’s internal affairs. The United States should not make unwarranted remarks, still less interfere in them under the pretext of human rights.”
In fact, referring to Blinken’s plans made clear earlier to raise those issues during his upcoming meetings, China made it clear Apr 23 that it will not welcome any raising of human rights, Tibet, and Taiwan issues.
China’s official globaltimes.cn Apr 23 cited a senior official from the country’s Foreign Ministry as saying that it will be made clear that “issues related to Xinjiang, Xizang [Tibet], and Hong Kong are matters of China’s internal affairs and have nothing to do with so-called human rights.”
The report cited the unnamed senior official as saying the US must not use human rights as an excuse to interfere in China’s internal affairs, that how human rights are in a country is best judged by its own people, the official was stated to have maintained.
Xinhua cited Yang as saying Blinken’s visit took place at the invitation of Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee. The visit was stated to be part of the efforts by China and the US to follow through on the common understandings reached by the two presidents at their meeting in San Francisco, maintain dialogue, manage differences, advance cooperation and strengthen coordination on international affairs.
Apart from President Xi Jinping and Wang Yi, Blinken was stated to have met with Wang Xiaohong, State Councilor and Minister of Public Security, for exchange of views on counter-narcotics law enforcement cooperation. Blinken has also met, Apr 25, with Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee Chen Jining to discuss Shanghai’s exchanges and cooperation with the US side.
Apr 27 said Chinese experts deemed Blinken’s visit as “generally positive and playing a role in stabilizing relations between China and the US,” but cited observers as also believing such a visit by itself cannot fundamentally change the current trend of China-US ties.
