US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Chinese diplomats on Saturday that Vice President Kamala Harris is taking a harder line on US-China diplomacy amid shifting political winds from President Joe Biden, The Washington Post reported.
Harris is the presumptive Democratic nominee for the 2024 presidential election despite receiving virtually no votes in the party's primary after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race on Sunday. Blinken met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday to discuss U.S.-China relations and broader international issues, with Biden and Harris both emphasizing their embrace of a “rules-based” international order – a rare mention of her views as Harris draws more attention, a senior State Department official said. Said The Washington Post. (Related article: “This is escalation”: Russian and Chinese bombers jointly intercept US airspace in unprecedented first flight)
TOPSHOT – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) shakes hands with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the 57th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Vientiane, July 27, 2024. (Photo by ACHMAD IBRAHIM/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
“Obviously, the circumstances are a little different now than they were in the past,” the official told The Post, noting that Blinken had mentioned Harris during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2022, but that the situation changed when Biden decided to pull out and Harris had a new chance to win the Democratic nomination. “The circumstances are different now because they're not what we envisioned in those previous meetings.”
According to the Washington Post, Harris has visited the Asia-Pacific region three times during her term as vice president, speaking out against Chinese aggression in the region while working to maintain U.S.-China relations.
Defense experts and former U.S. national security officials have previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation they doubt whether Harris has enough experience to oversee national security and foreign policy, raising concerns that her election could put U.S. national security at risk.
US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris waves as she arrives to board Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, July 27, 2024. (Photo by Stephanie Scabrau/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
During the meeting, Blinken outlined to Wang a range of challenges Washington has with Beijing and urged Beijing to honor its commitments to engage in bilateral cooperation, according to the officials. statement He was contacted by the State Department and The Washington Post. Among the issues Secretary Blinken raised with Wang were preventing the flow of fentanyl raw materials from China, the need for greater military cooperation, concerns about Chinese aggression against U.S. allies in the South China Sea, and the worrying relationship between China and Russia.
“Secretary Blinken stressed the importance of continuing to use diplomacy to manage competition responsibly, discuss differences candidly, and make progress on areas of cooperation that are important to the American people and the world,” State Department spokesman Matthew Mill said in a statement, according to The Washington Post. “Both sides recognized the importance of maintaining lines of communication in the coming weeks and months.”
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
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