U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, in Hawaii on Wednesday amid a deep deterioration of ties between the strategic rivals, their first face-to-face meeting since last year, EDNews.net reports citing Reuters.
The world’s two largest economies have been at loggerheads over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic and China’s move to impose security legislation on Hong Kong, among the latest flare-ups in tensions that have sharply escalated this year.
Yang told Pompeo that Washington needs to respect Beijing’s positions on key issues, halt its interference on matters such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Xinjiang, and work to repair relations, China’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
Yang said cooperation between the two countries “is the only correct choice”, according to the ministry.
Pompeo stressed “the need for fully-reciprocal dealings between the two nations across commercial, security, and diplomatic interactions,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.
“He also stressed the need for full transparency and information sharing to combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and prevent future outbreaks.”
Beijing described the meeting as “constructive” and said the two sides had agreed to continue engagement.
The meeting in Honolulu started shortly after 9 a.m. (1900 GMT) and concluded at 3:50 p.m. (0150 GMT Thursday), a senior State Department official said.
As the meeting got under way, U.S. President Donald Trump signed legislation calling for sanctions against those responsible for repression of Uighur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region, which prompted a threat of retaliation from Beijing.
Separately, foreign ministers of the G7 countries, including Pompeo, issued a statement calling on China not to follow through with the Hong Kong legislation which critics call an assault on the territory’s democratic freedoms.
Pompeo has been forceful in his criticism of Beijing and it was his first known contact with Yang since they discussed the coronavirus by phone on April 15.
Tensions have risen also over China’s neighbor North Korea. The United States and China share concerns about that country’s nuclear weapons program.
