US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressured China over the treatment of Uyghurs, Tibet and Hong Kong in the first conversation between senior officials from the two countries since President Joe Biden took office .
“I made it clear that the United States will continue to uphold democratic values and hold Beijing accountable for its abuses of the international system,” Blinken wrote on a social network, of the conversation he had with Yang Jiechi, director of China. Foreign Affairs Committee, Friday evening (5).
Blinken said the Biden government would continue to “defend human rights and democratic values in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong,” and pressured China to condemn the military coup in Myanmar.
The US foreign minister also stressed that Washington will hold Beijing responsible for any “attempt to threaten stability in the Indo-Pacific region, including the Taiwan Strait”.
Yang Jiechi said during the conversation that Hong Kong, Xinjiang Province (where the Uyghurs live) and Tibet are internal issues of China and “no foreign force can interfere with them.” And he asked Washington to correct the mistakes of recent years, according to the Chinese Embassy in the United States.
Yang also stressed the importance for the US government to respect the principle of “one China”, on the basis of which Beijing considers Taiwan as one of its provinces, and that the island question “is the central problem of relations. between China and the United States ”.
China threatens to invade Taiwan if its rulers make an official declaration of independence and has stepped up the crackdown on opponents in Hong Kong.
Blinken previously said during his confirmation hearing in Congress that he would continue former President Donald Trump’s tough policy on China, one of the few points of agreement between the former Republican government and the current administration. .
He also noted that he agreed with his predecessors at the State Department that Beijing is committing genocide in western Xinjiang against the Uyghur Muslim minority.