Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his Chinese counterpart had a tense standoff Monday as relations deteriorate between the countries over an escalating tariff war and accusations by the US that Beijing is interfering in next month’s elections.
Pompeo, who briefed Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi a day after meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, told him that “we have a fundamental disagreement.”
“We have great concerns about the actions that China has taken, and I look forward to having the opportunity to discuss each of those today because this is an incredibly important relationship,” the US’ top diplomat said during a meeting in Beijing.
But Wang laid out a list of grievances, blaming Washington for their frosty relationship.
“Recently, as the U.S. side has been constantly escalating trade friction toward China, it has also adopted a series of actions on the Taiwan issue that harm China’s rights and interests, and has made groundless criticism of China’s domestic and foreign policies,” he said during a joint appearance with Pompeo.
“We believe this has been a direct attack on our mutual trust, and has cast a shadow on China-U.S. relations,” he continued. “We demand that the U.S. side stop this kind of mistaken action.”
The Trump administration last month hit China with tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese products, and Beijing retaliated by imposing tariffs on $60 billion worth of US goods.
President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in recent speeches claimed that China was meddling in November’s midterm elections in an effort to damage Trump’s administration because of his tough stand on trade.
The US military also said it would conduct a show of force with destroyers and aircraft near Chinese territorial waters in the South China Sea.
Pompeo and Wang did find common ground in opposing the nuclear threat from North Korea.
A senior State Department official said, despite their differences, the US still expected China to cooperate on efforts to denuclearize North Korea.
“I would certainly expect so,” the official said. “That’s a very important issue, and they recognize that, and accept that, and realize that.”
After his meeting in Seoul, Pompeo said the two countries were working on setting up a second summit between Kim and Trump and were making progress in the negotiations over nuclear weapons.
With Post wires
