MESOPOTAMIA NEWS Top of the Agenda – China’s Foreign Minister: U.S.-China Relationship at Its Nadir

The U.S.-China relationship faces its most serious challenges in four decades (SCMP), said Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, calling for reconciliation between the two countries.

Bilateral ties have frayed over China’s new national security law for Hong Kong, human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region, the coronavirus pandemic, militarization of the South China Sea, and trade. During a speech in Beijing, Wang urged “positive energy” (Reuters), while criticizing U.S. policy toward China. He proposed that think tanks in both countries compile three lists: one of issues where the United States and China can cooperate, the second of resolvable disputes, and the third of irreconcilable differences. Analysts said the comments suggest that Beijing wants to ease tensions with Washington (FT).

 

Analysis
“A closer look at the data by each category outlined in [the] Phase One [trade deal]—manufacturing, agriculture, and energy—shows that in addition to not addressing the larger structural issues that have long generated conflict in the U.S.-China relationship, the trade deal may struggle to deliver the much-heralded increase in headline purchases,” CFR’s Brad W. Sester and Dylan Yalbir write.

“I think the message means that China’s foreign policy is not rigid, that there is still some room for adjustment,” Pang Zhongying tells the South China Morning Post. “But it may be too late as it is unlikely that China and the US could return to the track of cooperation because of their own domestic changes.”