China’s top foreign policy official Wang Yi has accused the United States of having a wrong perception about China that led to a wrong policy towards the country.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is on the first visit by a top U.S. diplomat to China since 2018.
Wang said Blinken’s trip to Beijing came at a critical juncture in Sino-U.S. relations and it was necessary to make a choice between dialogue or confrontation, cooperation or conflict.
Wang said the U.S. must stop hyping the theory of a threat from China and must also lift illegal unilateral sanctions against China.
Meanwhile, Blinken would meet Chinese President Xi Jinping before he departs Beijing on Monday after a two-day visit, Chinese state media reports.
This is the first trip by a U.S. secretary of state to China since 2018.
Blinken had met earlier in the day with China’s top foreign policy official, Wang Yi.
The last-minute announcement that Xi would talk to Blinken was seen as a special gesture, and a sign that Beijing aimed to cool the soaring tensions between the rival powers.
