President Biden’s top diplomat and top security adviser will hold their first face-to-face meeting with their Chinese counterparts next week in Alaska, the State Department announced Wednesday.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will meet in Anchorage on March 18 with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Yang Jiechi, director of the office of the Central Commission for foreign affairs.
Mr. Blinken is adding the meeting to the end of a previously planned Asia trip for talks in South Korea and Japan along with new Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The State Department said only that the U.S. and Chinese officials would discuss a “range of issues” at the one-day Alaska meeting.
President Biden is in the midst of a major review of relations with Beijing, following a sharp decline in the bilateral relationship under President Trump. Mr. Biden and his aides have kept for now steep tariffs imposed by Mr. Trump on Chinese imports, and have echoed the previous administration’s criticisms of Chinese policies on Hong Kong, Xinjiang and the need for more information from Beijing on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• David R. Sands can be reached at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
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