(Adds Chinese official's comment)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska, March 18 (Reuters) - The Biden
administration began its first high-level in-person talks with
rival China on Thursday, saying that Chinese actions threaten a
global order based on rules and vowing that Washington would
also stand up for its friends.
"We do not seek conflict, but we welcome stiff competition,
and we will always stand up for our principles, for our people,
and for our friends," the U.S. national security adviser, Jake
Sullivan, said at the start of talks with Chinese counterparts
in Alaska.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken told China's top diplomat,
Yang Jiechi, and State Councilor Wang Yi in Anchorage that the
U.S. side would discuss its "deep concerns" about Chinese
actions in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as cyber
attacks on the United States and economic coercion of allies.
"Each of these actions threaten the rules-based order that
maintains global stability," he said.
In lengthy response to the U.S. opening statements, Yang hit
back, accusing the United States of using its military might
and financial supremacy to pressure countries and of abusing
national security to threaten the future of international trade.
He said Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan were all inseparable
parts of Chinese territory and China firmly opposed U.S.
interference in its internal affairs.
Yang said human rights in the United States were at a low
point with Black Americans being "slaughtered" and added that
the United States should handle its own affairs and China its
own.
Yang said it was necessary to abandon a "Cold War
mentality," and confrontation and added:
"The way we see the relationship with the United States is
as President Xi Jinping has said, that is we hope to see no
confrontation, no conflict, mutual respect and win-win
cooperation with the United States."