Bloomberg News
February 6, 2021,
Antony Blinken
Photographer: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg
The U.S. and China’s top diplomats sparred on democracy and human rights in a phone conversation which was the highest level of communications between the two countries since the Biden administration began.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken “stressed” to Yang Jiechi, who sits on the Communist Party’s 25-member Politburo, that the U.S. will keep standing up for human rights and democratic values including in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, the State Department said. Yang told Blinken the three regions are China’s internal affairs, and foreign forces shouldn’t interfere, according to a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry.