Comfort taken from Alaska talks, expert says

Despite the public discord on show when United States and Chinese officials met in Alaska last week, that the meeting took place at all is a good thing, according to an observer of the bilateral relationship.

"I think the main purpose of the meeting was to establish direct official contact at this authoritative level and to create a foundation for future official exchanges," David Firestein, president and CEO of the George H.W. Bush Foundation for US-China Relations, told China Daily on Monday. "I believe these basic goals were achieved."

At the invitation of the US, Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, and Wang Yi, Chinese State Councilor and foreign minister, met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in Anchorage on Thursday and Friday.

"While the top Chinese officials have been in their respective positions for some time, the two US officials are very new to their current positions in the Biden administration," Firestein said. "This was a chance for these important officials from the two countries to spend some time together; they will be needing to deal with each other for some years to come."

He said that while the US downplayed expectations before the meeting, he hoped that there we will be much more senior-level engagement between the two sides to come.

"The issues are very difficult, but only through some level of engagement and dialogue can there be any hope of meaningful progress on at least some of those issues," he said.

On the public sparring seen at the meeting, he said: "Both sides seemed to be focused on playing to the cameras and the domestic political audiences represented by those cameras. That may be good politics, particularly in the US, where favorable sentiment toward China is now at a modern-era record low."

Referring to the policies of former president Donald Trump, he said: "The Trump record over the last four years makes one thing abundantly clear: 'Tough' rhetoric doesn't solve any actual problems, and indeed, often makes things worse."

Firestein said that he didn't have high hopes for the first meeting between the US and China, and the results were largely as expected.

"There is a profound difference in perspective between the US and China," he said. "That's going to be true for the foreseeable future. Indeed, the inconvenient truth about the US-China relationship is this: The most fundamental and contentious issues on the bilateral agenda will never be resolved to the satisfaction of both countries."

'Set the tone'

Firestein said the US decision to sanction Chinese officials associated with recent developments in Hong Kong immediately prior to the Anchorage meeting "set the tone "for the meeting and along with other factors helped ensure that no substantive progress on any issue would come of it.

According to a statement released by the Chinese delegation after the talks, both sides agreed to maintain a dialogue. The two sides also discussed arranging COVID-19 vaccinations for each other's diplomats, adjusting visa and travel policies based on the evolving pandemic, normalizing the exchange of visits, and increasing communication and cooperation on climate change.

"To the degree the Chinese reporting out of the Anchorage meeting reflects openness on both sides to move forward on these kinds of issues, I think that is heartening," Firestein said.

Firestein said that he hopes to see the reopening of China's consulate general in Houston and the US consulate general in Chengdu as early confidence-building measures.