Sherman was told by Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng that China is not in a position to lecture the U.S. on democracy and human right. He also said that the U.S. had once been involved in genocide against Native Americans.China has yet to release details about Wang's meeting with Sherman. It took place at a hotel compound that was modeled after millenia-old Chinese architecture in Tianjin (a coastal city near Beijing).According to Chinese officials, the U.S. efforts to seperate climate change cooperation and economic competition would not work.Chinese people see everything with wide eyes. Xie stated that the Chinese see the adversarial, collaborative, and competitive rhetoric as a thinly disguised attempt to subdue and contain China. They believe that the true emphasis should be on the adversarial.U.S. U.S.Sherman tried to reassure her Chinese counterparts that the U.S. was trying not to provoke confrontation, but to no avail.State Department spokesperson Ned Price stated that Wang and the Deputy Secretary had a candid and open discussion on a variety of issues. This demonstrated the importance of maintaining open lines between our countries. They also discussed how to establish responsible management terms for the U.S.-China relations. The Deputy Secretary stressed that the United States is open to stiff competition between our nations and that we plan to continue to build our competitive edge, but not to conflict with the PRC.Price said that Sherman raised many human rights concerns with Wang. These concerns included Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet as well as concerns over Beijing's conduct in cyberspace, across the Taiwan Strait, and in the East- and South China Seas.She also raised sensitive issues such as the ongoing investigation by the World Health Organization into the origin of Covid-19, which Beijing has blocked on grounds of stigmatization and politicization.
