NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday he had spoken with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during a a meeting of more than five hours at the end of a meeting of foreign ministers of the G20 Bali, in Indonesia.
This meeting, the first in person between the two diplomats since October, aims to prevent the already difficult relationship between Beijing and Washington from worsening.
“I repeated to the State Councilor that we were concerned about the alignment of the People’s Republic of China with Russia,” said Antony Blinken.
He considered that the position of China was not neutral, since Peking brought its support Moscow to the United Nations and “amplified the Russian propaganda”.
Shortly before Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, China and Russia proclaimed a “limitless” strategic partnership.
American officials have warned China against granting military or financial aid to Moscow.
In a statement, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi stressed that the direction of China-US relations could be further “misguided” due to a problem of perception of China by the United States. .
“Many people believe that the United States is suffering from an increasingly serious outbreak of ‘Sinophobia’ (‘Chinaphobia’),” the statement read.
Wang Yi told the head of the American diplomacy, during an exchange described as “profound” and “frank”, that the United States should lift as soon as possible the additional customs duties on Chinese products and stop imposing unilateral sanctions against Chinese companies.
In addition, Washingtin should be careful in words and deeds when it comes to Taiwan and should not send bad signals to the “independence” forces on the island, Wang Yi added.
US officials said before the meeting that the meeting was aimed at maintaining stability in US-China relations and preventing them from inadvertently drifting into conflict.
Antony Blinken has indicated that US President Joe Biden will meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in the coming weeks.
(Report David Brunnstrom, with the contribution of Ryan Woo Pkin, written by Ed Davies; French version Camille Raynaud and Laetitia Volga)