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State Secretary Mike Pompeo, right, shakes hands with Chinese Politburo member Yang Jiechi at the end of a press conference at the State Department in Washington on Friday 9 November 2018. (AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster) The Associated Press
By MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated press
WASHINGTON (AP) – China has urged the United States to stop sending ships and military planes to the islands claimed by Beijing in the South China Sea during preparatory talks at a meeting between the president Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping later this month.
The United States rejected Friday, insisting that they would continue to "fly, sail and operate where international law permits." At the end of September, American and Chinese ships almost clashed near a disputed reef.
Despite the frank discussion of differences at the Washington meeting of senior diplomats and military leaders from both countries, both parties stressed the need to calm tensions, which erupted amid a bitter trade dispute with Trump and Xi should attack at the round table. Summit of the group of 20 in Argentina.
"The United States is not pursuing a Cold War containment policy with China," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters after the diplomatic and security talks between China and China. "Instead, we want to ensure that China acts responsibly and equitably for the security and prosperity of each of our two countries."
The talks were to be held in Beijing last month but were postponed after Washington 's announcement of new arms sales to Taiwan, and after a Chinese destroyer approached the company. USS Decatur at the end of September in what the US Navy called "unsafe and unprofessional maneuver." Beijing has general but disputed sovereignty claims in the region.
"The Chinese side has made it clear to the United States that it should stop sending its ships and its military planes near the islands and Chinese reefs, and put an end to the actions that undermine the Chinese." authority and the interests of Chinese security, "said his Chinese counterpart, Pompei, Yang Jiechi. harsh words about US support for Taiwan.
However, Yang and the Chinese Minister of Defense, Wei Fenghe, discussed the need to improve cooperation, especially between the US and Chinese armed forces, in order to mitigate the risk of conflict when the two powers come together. compete for pre-eminence in the Asia-Pacific region.
"Cooperation is the only option for us," said Wei. "The confrontation and the conflict between the two armies will be a disaster for us all."
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis asserted the US right to freedom of navigation but also said that both parties should work together in areas of common interest. "Competition does not mean hostility, nor should it lead to conflict," said Mattis.
Although the rescheduling of the dialogue was a sign of an effort by both parties to contain the slide in the relationship, it did not address the fundamental dispute over trade. Trump has imposed a $ 250 billion tariff on Chinese products in an effort to reduce the US trade deficit and defeat what the United States sees as a predatory tactic on the part of China in the sector of high technology. Beijing fought back with US $ 110 million worth of US goods.
Yun Sun, a Chinese expert from the Stimson Center think tank, said Beijing did not know exactly what Trump wanted to get from a trade deal, but hoped that with US mid-term elections, the US president might be more inclined to reach a compromise. "Their priority is to stabilize their relations," she said.
On human rights, Pompeo expressed concern over China's treatment of religious minorities, including the mass detention of minority Uyghur Muslims. But overall, the tone of US officials' public comment was milder than that of the Chinese. Yang insisted that the Chinese have freedom of religion and that "foreign countries do not have the right to interfere".
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