Respect Rules-Based Order Or Face More Violent World: US Secretary Of State Antony Blinken To China

The United States and China engaged in war of words in the first face-to-face meeting between two countries' officials in Alaska's Anchorage on Thursday (19 March).

The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in his statement said that America intends to defend the "rules-based order" without which there would be a "far more violent world".

"The alternative to a rules-based order is a world in which might makes right and winners take all. And that would be a far more violent and unstable world for all of us," Blinken said.

He further said that Chinese activities in places like Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as its cyber attacks on the US and economic coercion of US allies, "threaten the rules-based order that maintains global stability. That's why they're not merely internal matters, and why we feel an obligation to raise these issues here today."

In response, China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi warned the US against interfering in China's "internal affairs". Yang further said that US is the "champion" of cyber attacks and mocked US domestic stability and challenged America's own record on human rights, reports CNN.

"We believe that it is important for the United States to change its own image, and to stop advancing its own democracy in the rest of the world," Yang said.

Yang challenged the US claims to global leadership, saying that "the US does not represent the world, it only represents the government of the United States".

After Yang, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China would not accept "the unwarranted accusations from the US side."

Following the extended remarks by the Chinese delegation, Blinken responded by saying that he engaged with nearly 100 counterparts on telephone calls in the short-span since assuming office as US Secretary of State, adding that all of them expressed "deep satisfaction that the United States is back, that we're reengaged with our allies and partners.

"I'm also hearing deep concern about some of the actions your government is taking," Blinken said.

Addressing the Chinese side's jibe on US domestic affairs, Blinken said that a hallmark of US leadership at home is "a constant quest to, as we say, form a more perfect union".

"And that quest by definition, acknowledges our imperfections, acknowledges that we're not perfect," he said.

"We make mistakes. We, we have reversals, we take steps back. But what we've done throughout our history is to confront those challenges -- openly, publicly, transparently -- not trying to ignore them, not trying to pretend they don't exist," Blinken continued.

Referring to a meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping when both of them were vice-presidents, Blinken said, "Biden at the time said, it's never a good bet to bet against America, And that remains true today," Blinken told the Chinese officials.