Wendy Sherman, who met Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, is the highest-ranking US official to visit China since Joe Biden took officeChina has accused the United States of treating it as an “imaginary enemy” to distract from its domestic struggles during another fractious meeting between senior diplomats. The event in Tianjin was the first face-to-face diplomatic meeting between the countries since an acrimonious exchange in Anchorage in March, when Beijing criticised Washington for “condescension and hypocrisy”. American officials accused the Chinese of threatening the rules-based international order. SponsoredEven before the Tianjin meeting began, Xie Feng, the Chinese vice foreign minister, said the Beijing would “teach the US a lesson” on how it treated other countries. Sherman, centre, led the US delegation at fractious talks in Tianjin PHOENIX TV VIA APHe later told Wendy Sherman, the visiting US deputy secretary of state, that the fundamental reason for the stalemate in US-China relations was that “some Americans portray China as an ‘imaginary

Source: The Times July 26, 2021 09:04 UTC